As I drive towards Aira Holme asking for directions to Strawberry Hill (another beautiful home), childhood images of an old stone cottage perched on top of a hill full of flowers and trees are conjured. With dreamy names like ‘Aira Holme’ (meaning sitting on Strawberry Hill), how could I resist? As I reach the base of the hill and walk up through the beautiful forest garden that surrounds the cottage, I see that this is the closest to my fairytale I can get in busy Shimla. Surrounded by Deodar, Apricot, Apple and other fruit trees, the cottage is enveloped by nature; an urban forest within the town.  When I finally reach the cottage, I see that even my wildest imagination couldn’t have created this wonderfully eccentric, slightly lop sided, stone and wood structure twinkling in the sunlight and the sounds of the wind chimes on the trees around it.

The original house was built in 1920 but was extended recently with locally available materials namely stone, wood and tin. Sloping tin roofs, hand chipped stone exteriors and wood panelling fit well with its surroundings. Large windows give it an airy open feel. The location and design of these old British houses was very well thought out so as to be season friendly, amidst picture perfect landscapes and with access to natural views and seclusion. This cottage is no exception.

The interiors of the cottage are as perfectly eccentric as you can imagine them to be. The madly interesting couple Sanjiv and Billy Malhan have lived in this house their entire married life and the house feels lived in and homely. It doesn’t hurt that Billy Malhan is an artist, a painter, a conservationist and a mystic! The house is full of books and the walls are covered with his art – he specializes in detailed ink drawings of old buildings (he is passionate about the restoration of heritage buildings and is the founder of INTACH Himachal Pradesh) and beautiful colourful compositions that I can only describe as ‘spiritual art’. Sanjiv Malhan is the perfect antidote to Billy – devoted to her garden, she loves tending to her beautiful flower bushes and runs the house perfectly. When their children got married and left for the big cities, they felt the house became too big for just the two of them and decided to open their home to guests. As Billy says, meeting interesting people from around the world widens your horizons and makes for some excellent inspiration for art. Little does he know how much he inspired me!

Besides the two rooms for your stay, the house has a lovely ‘lounge’ room which is like a conservatory on the first floor, with windows opening up to the trees; two large formal living rooms, plenty of space to sit outside and drink in the views while you have your meals and Billy’s large studio area in the top most part of the room. It is a large room full of his works of art and books; you could easily spend hours up here with him. There are some lovely walks to be had around the area and the town of Shimla is extremely close by.