About the house

Buransh is a private family home in the hills of Mukteshwar, surrounded by oak and buransh forest — a place to come for a few quiet days, and feel at home while you're there.

The house and garden on a clear day

A family home, opened up

The house was bought as a hideout to escape to — a place to get away when the plains got too hot, or the year got too long. It sits on a hillside in Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand, among oak and buransh trees, with a small orchard the family has tended for years and a stretch of reserved forest just below the deck.

We've opened the whole house to guests who want the same thing we do: a slow few days somewhere quiet, with good light, real furniture, and a view worth sitting still for.

Stone path through pine trees leading toward the mountains

The land

A stone path cuts down through the property, past the orchard and into a small reserved patch of oak forest — old, tall trees that the family has never touched, with buransh blooming bright red among them in spring. In spring there's blossom on the fruit trees too; in winter, snow settles on the branches and the whole hillside goes quiet.

Guests are welcome to walk the paths, sit in the garden among the hydrangeas, or simply watch the ridgeline change color at sunset from the wooden deck.

Buransh rhododendron tree in bloom along the forest path
Hand-drawn illustration of a buransh rhododendron bloom

Where the name comes from

Buransh is the Hindi name for rhododendron — the tree that lines the path into our reserved patch of forest, flowering bright red every spring. It felt like the right name for a house built around its trees.

Aasheesh and Gauri, your hosts, on the porch of Buransh Cottage

Meet your hosts

A place to disappear to

We're Aasheesh and Gauri. We bought this house years ago as a hideout — somewhere to escape to when the plains got too hot, or the year got too long. When we're here, we don't do very much on purpose. Long mornings on the deck, an hour or two working among the trees, a book that quietly turns into a nap in the library, and evenings as a family around the fireplace, watching the stars come out.

The house is very much an extension of our life — you'll notice Tibetan rugs and carpets through the rooms, a nod to my Sikkimese-Pahadi heritage. The buransh illustration you see across this site was hand-drawn by Gauri, inspired by the rhododendron trees that line the path into our forest.

We wanted to share this place with guests who'd value it the way we do, and treat it as gently as we try to. We hope you enjoy your stay here as much as we do.

See the rooms

Three bedrooms, each with its own character and its own view.

View rooms