c. 1940
Kishan Singh builds the house
Deepak's grandfather, a schoolmaster, dry-stacks the ground floor from stone quarried on the slope behind. Half-metre walls, deodar beams, a byre attached at the eastern end. Nobody records the year.
The family
Everyone here
had a reason to leave.
Between 2001 and 2019, four households on this lane emptied. The families went to Haldwani, to Delhi, to Dubai in one case, and the houses were locked and left with the keys hanging on a nail at a cousin's. That is the normal story of a Kumaoni village. This page is about why ours went the other way.
— Deepak Pant, February 2026
The long version
Ninety years, abbreviated
Some of these dates are approximate because nobody in this family has ever written anything down until it was too late.
1962
The border closes
After the war with China the old trade routes to Tibet through Milam and Darma shut permanently. Half the district's economy — wool, salt, borax — disappears in a season. The hills begin to empty.
1979
The first floor
Deepak's father adds an upper storey in cement block because cement is modern and stone is what poor people build with. It is colder in winter and hotter in June and we have not forgiven him.
1984
Deepak is born
The last of four. Two of his siblings will leave the district before they are twenty-five and not come back except at festivals.
1997
Kamla arrives from Gangolihat
Married at nineteen into a house she had seen twice. She will spend the next two decades running its kitchen and, eventually, its accounts.
2005
Deepak starts teaching
Geography, at the government inter-college in Berinag. Nineteen years of it. This is why he cannot look at a ridge without telling you how it was formed.
2013
The rains
The Kedarnath floods make national news. Here, the byre wall comes down and the road is shut for eleven days. It is the first time the family seriously discusses leaving.
2016
A bed in the front room
The younger child leaves for Dehradun. Kamla suggests a bed in the front room. The first guest is a cyclist from Pune who stays one night and returns for eleven.
2019
Four rooms, and a decision
Demand exceeds the house. Two people offer to invest in an eight-room extension. We say no, and write down why, and that note is still on the kitchen wall.
2021
The byre becomes the cottage
Rebuilt from its own collapsed stone by four men from this lane over five months. It is the best room in the property and it cost less than a new roof.
2024
Fibre reaches the ridge
Forty megabits, eight years after it reached Almora. Within a year, one guest in five is arriving with a laptop and staying a fortnight.
2026
Ten years, 2,140 guests
Four rooms. Same house. Different cow. Bhagwati still does not approve of the internet and says so, loudly, at dinner, to strangers.
Who you will meet
The household
Six people and a dog. You will meet all of them within about four hours of arriving, whether you planned to or not.
Deepak Pant
Host · walks · geography
Taught for nineteen years and has not stopped explaining rock strata. Will walk you anywhere.
Kamla Pant
Kitchen · garden · accounts
Runs the chulha, the terraces and the money. The only person permitted to judge the dal.
Bhagwati Devi
Eighty-one · weaver
Weaves pankhi on a backstrap loom. Disapproves of the internet. Will feed you regardless.
Mohan Ram
Walking guide · photographer
Grew up two houses down. Knows where the waterfall is and where the leopard sleeps.
My grandmother-in-law asked the first guest why she had come so far to look at an ordinary hill. Then she made her a second roti, and a third, and did not let her leave for four days.
The decision
Why we said no to eight rooms
In 2019 two separate people offered money to double the property. The arithmetic was good. We wrote out what would have to change and the list came to nine items, of which seven were the reasons guests said they liked the place. So we said no, and pinned the list to the kitchen wall, where it is still legible.
- A manager, because Kamla cannot cook for twenty-two
- A menu, because a manager needs a system
- Staff from outside the valley, because there are not enough people on this lane
- A second sitting at dinner, which ends the one-table rule
- A booking system that does not involve a conversation
- Fixed activity times, because eleven people can improvise and twenty-two cannot
- And, eventually, someone at a desk saying welcome
A day in this house
What actually happens, hour by hour
This is our day, not yours. Yours can look like anything. But it helps to know what is going on around you.
05:15
The shed
Kamla and Deepak milk Gauri and Sheela. The kettle goes on first. If you want to learn, be there — nobody will wake you for it.
07:00
Tea at the doors
Carried out on a steel tray. This is when Deepak tells you what the weather is doing and therefore what the day can be.
08:30
Breakfast, then out
Roti, ghee, pickle, egg if you eat them. Then the walk, or the farm, or the tea garden, or nothing at all.
13:00
Lunch, and then the hole
The only meal that is ever late. After it, nothing is scheduled until five, deliberately and permanently.
17:00
The fire, Oct–Mar
Lit because the house is cold, not because it is an activity. Bhagwati arrives with her loom and the volume rises.
19:00
One table
Everyone. Including us. Including whoever from the lane has turned up. This is the part people remember.
21:00
Bhagwati goes to bed
And the whole house drops about fifteen decibels. In winter the telescope comes out after this.
The house is still a house
And there are four rooms in it. If any of the above sounds like the kind of trip you want, the next step is a short message telling us roughly when.