“Maybe what I really want is to be near the river.”
Depi Chaudhry (56) hadn’t an inkling that this whim in the early 2000s would someday transform into his dream, ‘Aashraya on the Ganga’. The homestay is alienated from the cacophony of Rishikesh, and the AQI (Air Quality Index) here is an outlier, standing at 16 as of 24 October 2024, in stark contrast to North India’s statistics, which border on 200.
For Depi, a multi-hyphenate —- “I’m an avid trekker, an engineer, a homestay owner and a father to three girls” — the homestay was a corollary of the sustainable life he envisioned for his daughters as they got older. “I thought this [the cottages] would encourage them to spend more time outdoors.”
Letting us in on why he was keen to live near the River Ganges, he recalls one of his many trekking expeditions. After the family’s move from Bengaluru to Gurugram in 2002, Depi was busy finding his rhythm as a stay-at-home dad. His day, which began with neatly arranging three tiffin boxes — guessing which snacks would thrill his little girls — often ended with him preparing lavish dinners following homework sessions in the evenings. Naturally, when his daughters moved to boarding school in later years, the empty nest brought an ache for company, which Depi found in nature.
“I began trekking around the Himalayas. Before this move, we were always in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Hyderabad. I wanted to take advantage of being in North India,” he explains.
However, that winter also brought a realisation: trekking through the snow wasn’t as easy as he’d presumed. He needed another escape, and as he eventually discovered, river rafting proved to be an excellent alternative. The land on which ‘Aashraya on the Ganga’ stands previously hosted Depi’s rafting business, ‘Real Adventures,’ in 2003.
Aashraya on the Ganga: A feast for nature lovers
The homestay has three cottages — Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, and Ganga — a father’s love letter to his daughters, Aishwarya (29) and twins Aditi and Anisha (28). Each cottage includes a double bed and two single beds, while the ‘Frangipani Cottage’ offers a double bed and a private garden. With sustainability in every crevice, both at the homestay and its surroundings, the cottages make for a fine escape for those seeking an eco-stay.
The hosts, Depi and his daughter Aditi reiterate their commitment to making nature a crux of everything they do at Aashraya. Proof of this lies in the green palette, the thousand-plus trees bordering the homestay, which make you feel as though you’ve just stepped into nature’s soap opera.
Acknowledging that she and her sisters were way too young to comprehend their father’s ideas at the time, Aditi, an architect, now recognises how he was ahead of the curve when it came to sustainable practices. Depi loves treating his guests to these tales. A nomad, as he describes himself in response to my question about where he hails from, Depi has lived many lives across the Indian map. His adventures — and perhaps the chai he brews — keep his guests hanging on to his every word during these storytelling sessions.
Fair warning: no two cuppas are alike. The flavours are enriched by souvenirs brought back from his travels across India —- rhododendrons from Chopta in Uttarakhand, sea buckthorn leaves from Ladakh, and wild hibiscus from around the property. Everything has a story at Aashraya, from the tea and the food (an epicurean experience) to the architecture, which celebrates local materials — dry stone and wood sourced from a Maruti showroom.
A coolness engulfs every guest who sets foot on the property, stemming from the roof padded with recycled jute bags. Needless to say, electricity use is minimal. The father-daughter duo proudly share that they capitalise on sunlight, fulfilling their electricity needs through solar.
Luxury needn’t come at the cost of sustainability
Elaborating on the idyllic journey the cottages have seen — one that has evolved in parallel with the girls’ lives — Depi shares, “Initially, the plan was for this to be a family holiday home. We thought it would be lovely for the girls to come here with their friends during their boarding school breaks. For many years, it remained a personal home for us. But over time, I began to feel the pinch of it becoming a ‘white elephant’. I wanted it to have a life. That’s when I decided to start a homestay,” he reflects.
Ensuring sustainability factored into every decision went without saying.
At Aashraya, nothing is considered waste. The kitchen water passes through a simple contraption that, while obstructing the food particles, allows clear water to flow into a series of ponds for further clarification. This water is then used for gardening. Similarly, food waste is transformed into compost by a shredder. Traditionally, this process takes 28 days, but Depi is all smiles as he shares that Aashraya’s method shortens the time: “It takes just five days for manure to be ready.”
A stay at Aashraya is akin to booking a getaway into another realm where the usual metrics of time do not apply. Routines here are guided by the rhythm of nature. But while you may be tempted to romanticise the homestay’s isolated location — 45 km away from Rishikesh — Depi cautions that the route to the homestay is rough.
“Getting here requires a beautiful 2.2 km, one-hour moderate trek that takes you across a river bridge and then through a forest and a village. A good fitness level is required to walk this stretch comfortably. Our staff will receive you at the starting point of the trek and help you out with your luggage. Mules can be hired on prior request at Rs 300 per mule (to be paid by guests),” he shares.
But he quickly adds that the glorious views compensate for this effort. Being so cut off from the city, Aashraya has adapted to meet its own needs. Creating this universe of self-sufficiency wasn’t easy, as Depi explains.
“It has been a slow and tedious process that has taken many years to build. For the first fifteen days of my stay here, I ate the same meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was no electricity, and I was living in a tent,” his voice trails off as he reflects on those days. Many times, Depi felt alone in the journey to building this haven in Rishikesh. But even in those moments of solitude, nature kept him company, offering him help when he needed it.
“You know, soon after the three cottages were ready, a woodpecker began visiting us, pecking at the panes with impressive intensity. We would shoo it away, but it would return, moving from one cottage to the next.” After several days of unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the bird — Depi laughs that they even kept a carpenter at hand to repair the damages caused — he realised the woodpecker was trying to convey a message. There were termites in the wood! After treating the wood with medication, one day, the woodpecker stopped visiting Aashraya. Its job was done.
Depi appreciates how, time and again, nature has intervened, ensuring he remains on the right track. This is evident in his journey of regreening the once-overgrown land, which now boasts oranges, brinjals, guava, pumpkins, mangoes, dragon fruit, custard apples, and cherries.
Aditi and her sisters, though currently living in different parts of the world, emphasise that Aashraya has always felt like home. “We’ve grown up here. For us, it is a place that reminds us of our parents and our childhood. It is a place that makes us want to be closer to nature,” Aditi shares. I can almost feel her father’s sigh of relief; the cycle of his intention is complete. Proud that his daughters feel this way, Depi says. “At the end of the day, nature has all the answers for us. It has the solutions we need.”
Book your escape here.
Edited by Arunava Banerjee
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