Meghalaya in Coorg? How this Delhi couple dreamed it to life

The village of Bittangala is so far removed from the dust, heat and pollution of Delhi that it can sometimes feel like another planet. When you compare the national capital’s dry, arid plains with the lush hillside on which the Nambiar home perches, the contrast is even greater. “In the mornings, we are very often above the clouds,” says Padmini Nambiar, one half of the cheerful septuagenarian couple to whom this home belongs. The Nambiars have named this home ‘Meghalaya’ for its more constant, less corporeal residents (i.e., the clouds), but the house was built primarily as a second home they could spend time in once they retired. “After living in Delhi for so many years, my husband and I were keen to go to a place with less pollution and more nature,” Padmini says.

Designing Meghalaya in Coorg
Meghalaya was built, perhaps surprisingly, by a Gurgaon-based firm called SAKA Studio. Founded by architect Swanzal Kak Kapoor, the firm believes in design that is “deeply responsive to site context (physical, cultural, and historical), and client needs (both stated and perceived).” The Nambiars’ earthy, charming little home, is the result of these two principles manifesting all the way down in Coorg, halfway up a hill. 

The 2,500 sq ft structure is built on a level strip on the slope, with views of the valley to the south and west. The living room, three bedrooms and the kitchen are on the lower floor, and an attic space accommodates an additional children’s bedroom and store. The highlight of the home is a deck that wraps around the southern and western sides of the house, giving residents the perfect place from where to take in views of the valley. “It is my husband’s favourite place to be,” Padmini points out. Her favourite place in the house is by the large bay window in the master bedroom. “For me, it's like a painting. You can see three or four mountain ranges and the view is ever changing,” Padmini says, adding, “and it’s so beautiful, I feel that even if you don't believe in a god, you start believing in at least a creator.”

Materially too, the house is true to its context and uses local laterite stone, honne and nandi wood, terracotta roof tiles and Sadarahalli granite columns. “There is only one concrete wall in the whole house,” says Padmini, an interior designer by training. 

When the Nambiars are in Meghalaya, they usually just stay home, with outings limited to pottering around on their three-acre property. “It's so different from our lives in Delhi that we just enjoy being here, in a quiet place,” Padmini says. Sometimes friends and family come to stay with them, as do their children and grandchildren—those times, the silences are replaced by the sounds of cheerful conversations and the children’s excited laughter. 

Is Bittangala for you?
While the village is fairly easily accessible by road, its remoteness means that medical facilities are limited, because of which the Nambiars only come to Bittangala for short visits. The monsoons are beautiful, but can also be harsh and Padmini recounts a particularly heavy one around three years ago that caused a lot of landslides. “And sometimes the clouds actually pass through the house and everything gets cold and wet—the bed sheets and everything!” The Nambiars prefer to spend time here in the months between December and June. “It’s beautiful, and we don’t even need the AC,” Padmini says. 

When they have friends and family over, they make short sightseeing trips to Madikeri, or hop over to the Amritara Ambatty Green Resort where the kids can splash about in the pool, and the grown ups can get in a few rounds of golf at the greens next to the resort. 

For those used to more activity than soaking in Bittangala’s peace and quiet, Coorg offers a number of options in terms of wildlife (Nagarhole National Park and the Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary); nature (the Iruppu and Abbey Falls); innumerable tea, coffee and spice plantations; and surprisingly, white water rafting on the Barapole river.

An almost religious reverence for nature is part of life here, and while the land is fertile enough to grow almost anything, if you plant fruit trees, you can expect frequent run-ins with monkeys (and less frequent ones with elephants). Swanzal advises minimal external lighting in keeping with the local Coorg belief that gardens return to the forest at night. For people looking to build homes in the region, she also advises choosing materials and finishes that are high on visual appeal and very low maintenance. “From the aesthetic point of view, creating a sense of timelessness and repose is extremely important,” she says.