Visit Velanga Orchard and homestay in Andhra Pradesh for a slow life and pottery lessons!

Owned and managed by Karthik Ramaraj and Nikita Dawar, Velanga Orchard and homestay are a living experience to rejuvenate the mind before you get back to the regular fast-paced city life.

With a tremendous shift towards seeking a peaceful lifestyle and moving away from the hustle and bustle of city life, the culture of homestays and farm stays can be observed to be on a high rise. Velanga Orchard and homestay, located in Bodabandla village of Andhra Pradesh is one such place that upholds the true essence of homestays with its locality and the slow-paced life that it has to offer.

Velanga, meaning "wood apple" in Tamil is a mango orchard that belongs to Karthik Ramaraj and Nikita Dawar. Spread over an area of 34 acres, the homestay consists of a mango orchard and is intercropped with trees including Teak and Coconut, covering 30 acres and a cultivable land of 4 acres where the couple grows paddy, sugar cane, sunflower, etc.

As Karthik Ramaraj talked about his property, he mentioned that initiating such a farm stay was a decision for a changed lifestyle. "It was a natural progression from choosing a lifestyle that could also create a livelihood, high up in our priority were rural living, a quieter work environment, and to have a farsighted approach to how our near future would look like," he said.

Designed for a peaceful life

Velanga is surrounded by the reserve forest on three sides and farmlands on one side that belongs to a small village having a strength of around 30 families.  Ramaraj is of the view that it makes for a private encounter with a natural environment and a rural experience. The property has 3 twin cottages and 4 individual cottages, which can easily accommodate 10 people in total.

The cottages have followed a sustainable practice as most of the construction has been done using upcycled material and antiques that the couple has sourced and restored themselves. "Almost 80 percent of the material we have used is within a 50 km radius. Our design was solely based on a simple vernacular approach. With comfort, one needs to enjoy a space away from home," Ramaraj said.

The cottages use fresh groundwater, a combination of solar and electricity from the grid. "We emphasize on ourselves in taking as much burden away from the grid as possible," he said. Chittoor is a closed district that is 22 km away from Chennai, and the nearest small village Bangarupalem, which is 7 km, is enough for their basic needs. Amazingly, as Ramaraj said, Velanga is located equidistant from Bangalore and Chennai!

Pottery Studio

Velanga also houses a residential pottery studio, an essential segment for the owners. "Studio pottery as an art and craft entrepreneurship is an emerging industry and doing good in our country. It is quite different to the traditional pottery landscape that most people are aware of or come across in their daily lives," Ramaraj said.

The studio is available for the students who enroll themselves for 6-8 months or a year to learn it from the teacher and Ramaraj's wife, Nikita Dawar. "Usually, once we announce our dates, we fill up within a couple of weeks," Ramaraj said, adding that pottery offers multiple benefits to its practitioners, and with nature in the mix, the wholeness of this art form is experienced thoroughly.

On asking whether the aim is to revive the pottery culture, Ramaraj said, "We provide a space where one can tune into a quieter state of mind to try an art form to understand a little bit more about themselves and the immediate environment. So, we are surely not reviving the pottery culture as much as we are making it more accessible."

On the other hand, while most of the months are occupied by the students who also come to live here, the owners open the doors for other guests for the rest of the months. Although the guests at the homestay cannot access the studio, but Ramaraj says, "A quick tour and a pottery conversation is always on the cards."

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Moreover, the guests can enjoy long walks inside the farm and in the reserve forest. The place has the privilege of having a private hill that is not used by anyone else but the owners. "We can easily catch sunrises and sunsets without having to make big plans for it and within 40 minutes, you can enjoy a dozen light hikes all by yourself," said Ramaraj about the hill.

In addition, a clean freshwater lake, around 3 km away from the farm also acts as a private pool for the owners and the guests can kayak, swim, light a fire and enjoy the night sky around it. "Our night skies are free from light pollution and most nights, our guests prefer to share stories and stay out in the open. It is an absolute privilege to have these natural endowments all to yourself," said Ramaraj.

For the explorers, there are some historical sites within a short drive. Tirumala, known for temples, is just 80 km from the place and is on a hill that’s part of the Eastern ghats, as told by Ramaraj. Guests can explore more than 100’s other fragmented hills of the Eastern Ghats. However, Ramaraj opines that his homestay offers people to focus on just "being" instead of doing anything. "It is the stillness of the place which is the most exciting part if we allow it to enter a decluttered mind," he added.

Local food is a must!

Ramaraj is very clear about the food which must be local, fresh, healthy and available in abundance. Most of the vegetables are grown by him and his wife on their patch and mostly, they consume their rice, millet, oils, etc. The rest of the ingredients, however, are sourced from the market where the local farmers sell their produce.

The poultry needs, especially, meat comes from free-range chickens raised in farms around their place and fish are procured from the lakes in their vicinity. "We tend to avoid any other meat as it has to be brought in from afar and it doesn’t thaw well with our less carbon footprint thought process," Ramaraj said.

Similarly, even most of the spices are also sourced and ground locally. However, Ramaraj mentioned that a few stuff like the cheeses, teas, some spices and a few specific cuisine-related ingredients are sourced from elsewhere if those are not available locally.

The people, mostly ladies associated with the farm, come from the nearby village. One of them is the chef, about which Ramaraj said she does not have experience cooking for a group of people. "We work together closely in the kitchen to keep it as close as possible to a family meal we cook when we have guests over," Ramaraj said. Another common practice at Velanga is cooking in banana leaves and clay pots on a wood fire.

All in all, Velanga is the result of a simple thought process to offer quaint life. Ramaraj adds to it as he says, "My wife and I wanted to make a space available to like-minded people who can see the obvious pressures of urban living and think on a frequency that requires a community-based approach to create a higher quality of life, which events from the last few years have proved affirmative."

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