In 2019, Kriti Godara and Ashish Bisht decided they were done with Delhi. They married that year and moved to Basgaon — a small village in the Nainital hills where Ashish had roots. It took three years to build the stone house using dry-stacked stone, mud, and lime. Kala cotton curtains, dyed with pomegranate peels. Solar pathways. Local food. The oak tree in the garden. In 2022, they opened their doors. The philosophy was already in the name.
The word slowness — as a name for a place, as an operating philosophy, as a destination in itself — has a particular power in the context of a farmstay in the Kumaon hills. It does not name a lack. It names a practice: the deliberate, effortful cultivation of a pace that contemporary life makes structurally difficult, and that mountain air, fresh food, and the silence of a village in the middle of an oak forest make structurally available. To go to Slowness Himalayas is to choose, consciously, to live differently for a few days. It is a choice that guests describe as one of the most valuable they have made.
The Story
Kriti Godara and Ashish Bisht met, dated, and married in 2019 — and made, in the same year, a decision that seems, in retrospect, to have been inevitable. Ashish has roots in Uttarakhand. Kriti was from Delhi, with the city’s professional momentum and the city’s accumulated exhaustion in equal measure. Together, they chose to leave. Not for a sabbatical. Not for an experiment. For good.
They found Basgaon, a small village in the Suyalbari area of Nainital district, and they began to build. Three years of work, using the principles that they had already decided would define their life in the hills: dry-stacked stone, mud, and lime — the traditional building materials of Kumaoni architecture, requiring no cement, thermally intelligent, beautiful in the particular way that natural materials become beautiful when placed by hands that understand them. Brick and cement usage was kept to a minimum throughout. Local masons were the collaborators and the teachers.
The kala cotton curtains, dyed with pomegranate peels, arrived in every room. The pathways were lit with solar energy. The kitchen was designed around local, seasonal ingredients. The house rose from the hillside the way that Kumaoni houses have always risen — slowly, carefully, as if the building knew where it was going.
In 2022, they opened the doors to guests.
The House
Slowness Himalayas is a stone house in the Kumaoni architectural style, spread across two storeys with four rooms and sweeping views of majestic oak trees and, on clear days, the Himalayan peaks beyond. The architecture is honest: what you see from outside is what you get inside — the texture of natural stone, the warmth of mud and lime plaster, the rooms that breathe with the seasons rather than requiring mechanical regulation.
The conscious design elements are specific and consistent. The kala cotton curtains, made from a traditional unbleached Indian cotton and dyed naturally with pomegranate peels, give the rooms a particular quality of light and warmth. The solar-lit pathways trace the house’s edges without the intrusion of electric infrastructure. Everything has been chosen to express the same principle: live in the landscape, not against it.
The views from the upper floor rooms are the ones that guests specifically describe — the Himalayan peaks visible on clear mornings, the oak trees immediately present in every window, the quality of light that comes from sitting in a stone house on a Kumaoni hillside at an altitude where the air is different and the distance from the plains is not only geographical.
The Food
Slowness Himalayas serves local vegetarian food — the food of the Kumaoni hills, made with fresh, seasonal ingredients and the knowledge of a kitchen that understands its own landscape. Guests describe every meal as wonderfully cooked, arriving with the freshness of ingredients that have not spent a day in a cold chain. The kitchen staff are praised consistently and warmly.
Breakfast at Slowness — with the Himalayan view across the table, the oak trees immediate, the village quiet around you — is described by multiple guests as one of the most beautiful mornings they have spent anywhere. Fresh ingredients, local cooking, the particular quality of eating in a place that grew what it serves. Nothing is flown in. Everything belongs here.
The Experiences
The Pause Retreat — a structured experience of yoga, activities, and personal time, led by yoga teacher Harshil — is one of the most celebrated offerings at Slowness. Guests who have spent a week at the Pause Retreat describe it as one of the most significant experiences of their adult lives: the combination of the mountain setting, the yoga practice, the social environment of like-minded people, and the particular quality of time that slows down to a genuinely different pace at Basgaon. Harshil is described as the most gentle yoga teacher a guest has ever encountered — the kind of praise that signals someone teaching from understanding rather than instruction.
Natural dyeing workshops — the art of Himalayan natural dyeing, researched, revived, and taught through a series of workshops and interactive sessions in Slowness’s sacred studio — are available for those who want a hands-on encounter with one of the most ancient and most beautiful of India’s craft traditions. Raw materials are foraged from the forest. Ancient Indian methods are the curriculum. The studio has been hosting these workshops for years and has developed a programme of considerable depth.
Farm walks, forest walks, village life observation, the simple pleasure of sitting under the oak tree — these are the activities that Slowness itself recommends, with the honesty of a place that understands its primary offering is not a programme of events but the quality of its silence.
What the Village Offers
Basgaon is a small village in the Kumaon hills — the kind of village that exists below the tourist radar of even the most well-travelled Kumaon visitors. This is intentional and essential. Slowness Himalayas is not near Nainital in the sense of being adjacent to its lake and its promenade and its weekend crowds. It is near Nainital in the sense of being within a reasonable distance of a railhead and an airport while being, in every other sense, completely removed from the world those transport links connect to.
The nearest large towns — Nainital, Bhimtal, Mukteshwar — are accessible for day excursions for those who want them. But the evidence of Slowness’s guest reviews is consistent: most people who come don’t go anywhere. They sit under the oak tree. They have breakfast with the mountain view. They do the yoga. They attend the dyeing workshop. They eat the local food. They think thoughts that the city had been interrupting for months.
Why It Stays With You
A guest who visited in December 2022, as a solo traveller, described Slowness as an almost enchanting space — a great place to meet yourself. Another described the Himalayan view across the breakfast table as one of the things she will never forget. A third described the combination of the mighty mountain view, fresh ingredients, and the furry residents of the property as the essential components of a stay that changed how she thought about what a holiday could be.
Kriti and Ashish left Delhi in 2019 with a clear vision of what they were building and what it would be for. Three years of dry-stacked stone and mud and lime. Kala cotton and pomegranate dye. A yoga teacher named Harshil. Local food cooked with love. The oak tree.
The name is the invitation. Come and be slow.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Village Basgaon, Suyalbari, District Nainital, Uttarakhand, India Email: info@slowness.in Natural dyeing workshops: naturaldyeing@slowness.in Website: slowness.in Booking: Direct via website · Stayvista · TripAdvisor (search Slowness Himalayas)
Hosts: Kriti Godara and Ashish Bisht — moved from Delhi to Basgaon in 2019; opened in 2022 Yoga teacher: Harshil (leads the Pause Retreat)
Construction: Dry-stacked stone · Mud and lime · Minimum brick and cement · Local masons · Kala cotton curtains (pomegranate-dyed) · Solar-lit pathways
Rooms: 4, across 2 storeys · Mountain and oak tree views · Kumaoni architectural style · Natural materials throughout
Dining: Local vegetarian food · Seasonal and fresh · Kumaoni cuisine · Kitchen staff praised consistently
Experiences: — The Pause Retreat (yoga, activities, personal time with Harshil — multi-day structured programme) — Himalayan Natural Dyeing workshops (studio-based, foraged materials, ancient methods — write to naturaldyeing@slowness.in) — Farm walks — Forest walks — Village life — Sitting under the oak tree (specifically recommended)
Check-in / Check-out: Confirm with Kriti and Ashish on booking
Getting There — Kathgodam Railway Station: approximately 50–60 km from Basgaon — around 2 hours by road. Regular trains from Delhi Anand Vihar (6–7 hours on Ranikhet Express and other services). — Pantnagar Airport: approximately 80–90 km — around 2.5 hours. — From Delhi: approximately 280–300 km — around 5.5–6 hours by road via Moradabad and Haldwani. — From Nainital: approximately 25–30 km — around 1 hour. — Basgaon is a small village in the Suyalbari area — GPS may be unreliable for the final approach. Coordinate exact directions with Kriti and Ashish before departing. A 4WD or SUV is recommended for the final stretch.
Nearby — Basgaon village: immediate · Nainital: 25–30 km · Bhimtal: 20 km · Mukteshwar: 40 km · Kathgodam: 55 km · Delhi: 280 km
Best Time to Visit: October to May for the best weather and clearest mountain views · December to February for the Pause Retreat season and the dramatic winter Himalayan peaks · March to May for spring flowers and rhododendron bloom · The monsoon (June–September) turns the forest intensely green and is beautiful in its way, though some forest paths can be muddy
