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Building a homestay in the hills, on the side

My wife Roma and I are building Kunja Village Homestay — a small, unique stay in Kunja, Almora. Notes on making something physical and hospitable, in a life mostly made of software.

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Most of what I build disappears into a screen. This one won't.

On the side, Roma and I are building Kunja Village Homestay — a small, unique place to stay in Kunja, in the hills of Almora. It's the opposite of my day job in almost every way, and that's exactly the appeal.

What software doesn't teach you

  • You can't refactor a wall. Physical things are unforgiving in a way code never is. "Measure twice" stops being a metaphor.
  • Hospitality is the product. Nobody remembers the floor plan. They remember how it felt to wake up there — the light, the quiet, the chai. That's the whole spec.
  • Place is non-negotiable. You can move a startup. You can't move a hillside. The constraint is the character.

It's slow, hands-on, deeply offline work, and it's a good counterweight to a life mostly lived in abstractions. I'll post the occasional update here as it comes together.

Written by Manohar Negi in Bengaluru, India.

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