A HOME UNDER THE STARS

On the fringes of a famous national park, SHIKHA TRIPATHI discovers natural wonders beyond the jungle—and the planet—from a homestay owned by a unique couple.

- SHIKHA TRIPATHI

AS THE HAZY BALL of light gets sharper and sharper, a moon appears in its vicinity. Then another, and yet another, and finally a fourth. These are four of the 79 moons of Jupiter, I’m told, and if you’re observant (and lucky) enough, you can also see the Great Red Spot, a centuries-old anticyclonic storm in the gas giant’s atmosphere. Approximately 16,350 kilometres wide, it is said to be the largest in the solar system. As the night gets nippier and the sky darker, we could be on any of the far-flung stargazing spots on this planet. But our vantage point is much more modest and closer to home than you’d imagine: we’re buckled up for our space adventures in the welcoming home of an elderly couple on the outskirts of Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.

The Homestead started out as the family abode of Anil and Amrita Puri, better known as Bunny and Amu. The couple chose to call the wilderness of the Terai jungle their home in the 1960s. In the course of setting up a herbal medicine factory and their house, they lived—and got married—in a mud hut on the 150 acres of farmland that they later turned into mango and lychee orchards, and wheat and sugarcane fields. As Bunny and Amu travelled around the globe, marketing their factory produce and growing their business, their curiosity and enthusiasm only grew.