Honest review of the 'go back to village life' that city folks romanticise: it's beautiful and back-breaking. The sunsets are free, everything else costs sweat. Worth it, but come with realistic knees.

Lost an entire apple crop to hail one year and stood in the orchard genuinely thinking of selling the land. My father used to say the mountain takes and the mountain gives. I waited one more season. It gave.

Started the homestay at 51 with two rooms and a lot of doubt. Everyone said tourists want fancy hotels, not an old man's apple farm. Three years on it's booked most weekends. Turns out people are starving for quiet.

Nothing store-bought will ever beat madra and hot roti eaten on the charpai after a day in the orchard. Guests always ask for the recipe. I always forget to mention the main ingredient is being tired and hungry in the mountains.

People drive six hours to my Kangra homestay to 'find peace', then spend the evening hunting for phone signal. I just point at the apple trees and say sit. By day two, most of them forget the phone exists.