What happens when a forgotten estate becomes a canvas for connection?

Four crumbling walls stand tall amidst lush tea gardens that stretch as far as the eye can see. Plain, flowing strips of khadi gently sway in the wind. A babble of chatter echoes through the hills. It feels like life has returned to these walls. This is Chai Vagamon, an experience curated to bring people from different walks of life together. A space to share and connect, inviting people not to merely observe but to truly belong.

But it wasn’t always this way.

Before Chai, this part of the Vagamon estate was a ghost of its past. Locals passed by without a glance. The old factory walls stood hollow and forgotten, collecting moss and memories no one remembered. Tourists came for the hills, clicked photos, and left. No one stayed. No one asked who lived behind those green fields.

Then something shifted.

What if travel felt like coming home?

“When I first walked in, I saw a random mix of people, kids, older people, local tea pluckers, foreign tourists and other travellers. They were all engaged in different activities around the space. It was not like a typical event where a stage has been set up, it felt natural to simply walk in and join,” said Roshni Changalath, a doctor who had attended the inaugural event at Chai Vagamon in February.

That first gathering unfolded like a story being told over sips of tea. There were craft workshops lined with a hint of sustainability, art installations that started long conversations and talks from entrepreneurs and initiatives that are a step beyond ordinary, from chocolatiers to adventure riders specialising in difficult terrains, bamboo craft and ayurveda-based cosmetics. With these intimate events that host around 20 to 30 people at once, this experience is a brew of belonging, steeped in community, heritage, art and innovation, the four ingredients that give Chai its soul.

You come for the hills. You stay for the people.

Chai is set up in a 1500-acre tea plantation owned by SVPL Group in a hill station called Vagamon in Kerala, where life goes as slow as the mist that rolls........

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