To reach Shoonya, guests leave the road behind and take a short walk through village pathways and farmland. The small nature-led retreat sits in Letibunga village near Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand.

Mist hangs over terraced farms, the Himalayan peaks glow in the first light, and birdsong replaces the usual soundtrack of traffic and notifications. By the time guests arrive, the pace has already begun to change.

Spread across half an acre and designed for just a handful of visitors at a time, Shoonya encourages guests to leave packed itineraries and sightseeing checklists behind.

Here, they can spend time under the trees, watch the mountains change colour through the day, listen to birds, share long conversations, or simply sit still.

This slower approach to travel has struck a chord with people looking for a closer connection with nature. Behind it are Mahima and Rashmikant (RK) Jha, two NIFT graduates who left successful corporate careers to create a hospitality space shaped as much by biodiversity and community as by comfort.

They came for three months. Then they decided to stay.

In early 2023, shortly after getting married, Mahima and Rashmikant were looking for a temporary escape from city life.

At the time, Mahima was working as a Senior Growth Manager for a software company, while Rashmikant handled enterprise sales for TELUS International. The plan was simple: spend a few months working remotely from the mountains before returning to their lives in Gurgaon and Noida.

"We honestly wanted to move to South India first," Mahima recalls. "But eventually we decided to look somewhere in the north and came across this property in Mukteshwar."

The property had only one cottage then. The rest was open land surrounded by farms.

What began as a three-month experiment gradually changed how the couple spent their days and thought about their future.

"Life immediately slowed down for us," says Mahima. "Instead of spending our free time on phones or laptops, we started taking village walks, talking to local people and noticing small things around us."

Those walks and conversations also gave them time to think about the lives they had built in the city.

"We got a lot of time to think about ourselves," says Mahima. "What we wanted from life, what we were doing, and why."

For Rashmikant, the experience was transformative in a different way.

"The catalysts that nature provides through your senses are incredibly powerful," he says. "You become more aware of yourself and your surroundings. That awareness becomes a daily practice."

By the end of 2023, the couple had made a decision many around them considered........

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