Chestnut. Ringol. Oak.

At Jilling Terraces, the cottages — and the trees they’re named after — have long echoed a single message: sustainability.

It’s not just a theme; it’s a way of life here. It fills the air, shapes the architecture, nourishes the soil, seasons every meal, and colours every conversation between Sheela Venkatraman Lunkad and her husband, Rajeev.

Today, we join in the fun.

Straight out of a postcard, this eco stay in the heart of Uttarakhand’s forests — 100 acres of kaleidoscopically diverse flora — has a backstory as beautiful as its appearance.

Love has always been in the air at Jilling Terraces; its history proves. Sheela’s tale of one of the bungalows, Chestnut House — which was built in 1933 by a Sanskrit scholar for his Polish doctor wife — is a case in point.

“It seems she was recommended the place for its cool climate, and so her husband, Subramanium Iyer, built her this cottage,” she shares. Sheela and her family stumbled upon some tincture bottles one day during a spring cleaning session. This happened after they bought the land from Subramanium’s son, Anant Ram Iyer, in 2004.

The discovery of the bottles supported their guess about Subramanium’s mother’s condition. They also believed that the change of scenery — with pockets of sunshine filtering through forests of tall Deodars and whispering pines — might have been a possible antidote.

The land was meant to make her feel better. And it could do the same for you.

‘How we found Jilling Terraces’

A penchant for culture and local collaborations is at the heart of Sheela’s work as an architect. The ethnocentric mindset, she explains, dates back to her college days in Kolhapur, which were coloured with visits to different artisanal-heavy clusters around the country.

Sit-downs with the craftspeople taught her more than a textbook could. It introduced her to the leitmotif of an artisan’s work. She recognised the importance of fair wages and got a front row seat to how mass production often meant us sacrificing our cultural ethos.

But the event that really shaped her was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2002 at Washington D C. Produced by the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the festival saw the conglomeration of around 400 craftsmen from different geographies. It was a revelry of photography, painting, song, dance, art, craft and pottery. Being a part of the organising committee had given her a front row seat to how culture could be a bridge for stories.

© The Better India