High in Kumaon, a glass sanctuary invites you to watch the sky in luxury. High above the clamor of the plains, where the clouds often drift lower than the rooftops, sits Aatman Living. It is the personal retreat of Rahul and Divya Mishra, now opened to those who understand that luxury is no longer about gold taps or velvet ropes, but about silence, space, and clean air. Located in the quiet village of Kalakhet in Kumaon, this sanctuary offers something harder to find than a five-star hotel: a true escape.
Aatman Living: Luxury Defined by Stillness and Space
The architecture of Aatman tells a story of reverence. The Mishras spent years looking for this land, seeking a “utopia” of sunshine and solitude. The home they built honors that search. It is constructed from stone reclaimed from the site and steel that frames sweeping views of the Nanda Devi range. The design creates a constant dialogue with nature. In the living areas, floor-to-ceiling glass ensures that the mountains are always present, silent guests at your dinner table.
Life here follows the sun. You wake up when the light hits the snow-capped peaks, turning them a soft pink. Breakfast is slow, perhaps taken in the garden surrounded by cosmos flowers and fruit trees. The food is honest and hyperlocal, grown in the estate’s own patches or sourced from nearby village farms. It tastes of the soil and the season, unmasked by heavy sauces or complex techniques.
The house encourages intimacy with nature, with your companions, and with yourself. There are corners designed for solitude: a sun-drenched reading chair, a quiet bench under an oak tree, or the glass-walled solarium where you can watch the mist roll in without feeling the cold. For those who need to move, the surrounding forests offer trails that wind through pine and rhododendron, paths that haven’t been beaten flat by thousands of tourists.
Sustainability is a foundation at Aatman and not a buzzword. The home operates on principles of low consumption and high respect for the land. It collects its own water and manages its own waste, sitting lightly on the hill. This consciousness permeates the atmosphere. You feel lighter here, unburdened by the excess that defines urban living.
Where Silence Becomes the Experience
At night, Aatman transforms. The valley below disappears into darkness, and the house becomes a warm, amber-lit island. It is a time for conversations that go late into the night, for warming your hands around a cup of tea, or for simply staring up at a sky so clear it looks like a planetarium ceiling.
Aatman Living is not for the traveler seeking a packed itinerary. There are no checklists here. You come here to read that book you’ve been ignoring, to walk aimlessly through the woods, or simply to sit still until your pulse matches the rhythm of the mountains.
When you finally pack your bags to leave, you realise the true gift of Aatman – the clarity that comes from days spent without urgency. The mountains have a way of rearranging your priorities, making the noise of the city seem distant and unimportant. You drive back down the winding roads, but a part of you stays up there.
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