The Butterfly's NEST

AN ESCAPE FROM THE CITY THAT KEEPS YOU PINING FOR MORE, KAVITA DEVGAN FINDS HERSELF IN A SOULFUL PARADISE IN THE TIRTHAN VALLEY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

- KAVITA DEVGAN

What would you call a place that holds on to the memories of your visit, so that when you return, you find them safe and waiting? Paintings by a French artist who visited two years ago still hung in his old room, and stones collected from the nearby river, hand-painted by children, lay strewn across the lobby and sitting rooms. You wouldn’t call a place like this a hotel, or a resort; you’ll call it a home away from home. Guess that’s why the French painter is coming back this year, for his fourth trip to this same ‘home’. Gone Fishing Cottages—nestled in a pristine part of the unspoiled Tirthan Valley, that became our home for four days last year.

We reached late afternoon in early October, and settled into our cottage. After a meal of kadhi-chawal in the quaint dining room, we went looking around the resort, which has three cottages; two with two bedrooms each, and a big one with three bedrooms. They let out entire cottages, but you could opt for single rooms as well. Decorated in a bootstrapped manner, the most striking elements of the décor were the knick-knacks collected from travellers worldwide. The vividly painted walls infused life in the rooms and added a unique character to the place.

Dimple and Upendra Kamra, our hosts, curated the interiors on a shoestring budget, with dollops of love, care and much attention to detail. They used recycled bottles on all the lamps and across the walls, laid out carpets (from their ancestral farm) that are borderline antique in all the rooms, put to use their respective grandparents’ furniture in the cottages, procured antique fireplaces from offbeat destinations, and put up hand-painted wall plates and kettles (most were gifts from their friends).