The Tale Of The Enchanted House

Have been making travel plans for Choukori in Pithoragarh for years now. And this Diwali my dream came true. So four of us-my other half, my sister in law and a great friend from Kolkata met with us in Delhi and set off for Choukori. We took the overnight train to Kathgodam and drove for close to eight hours to reach Choukori. Enroute Shreya kept us busy with her marathon throwing up but we still some how reached Choukori in ship shape. It started raining heavily on the way and when we reached the KMVN at 4 p.m. it was overcast with strong winds blowing across from Panchachuli and freezing.

The next morning was bright and sunny with the entire range to see, as a good friend had said a clear 225 degree view from the TRH showed us the grandeur of Panchachuli, Nanda Devi and Trishul. And we were so happy to see the site. See the picture below.

The longer we stared at the mountains the more we were intrigued by the ruins at the forefront. So we started asking about and found out that it was an abandoned tea estate.

In this picture above you can see the road on the left leading to the ruins.

So off we went to our calling and saw the tea estate up close. This tree shades the house like a parent protects the child.

We were in for a huge surprise. As you turned the corner the main house was behind the ruins protected from rude glares. It had gables and bay windows straight out of a Jane Austen novel.

This is the grand two storied building and it definitely was not as old as the it seemed from the architecture . We saw plastic electric switch boards and wondered how it would have looked in days of its glory with lights in all windows and chandeliers tinkling.
These are the steps to go to the second level where some tea plantation can still be seen, but the trees have aged. There are some new constructions too which were kind of view points and were very recent. We wondered why this estate lay unused and were dying for a good story by this time.

And then we met the old guard who has served the estate for 65 years. The building behind him was the original building and the main house built by the Britisher and then sold out to a local resident. The local gentleman was the zamindar around the area and had created an estate that all would kill for. A tea garden, a dairy farm et all. He had two sons who in turn had ten daughters between them and the entire property now only saw strife as the numerous kiths and kins shared different vision for the estate. What remains of the entire grandeur are these ruins rest all of the land has been sold off. One man's dream lies in ruins today. Our dreams though have just begun.