Madheshwara Homestay

The occasional bicycle or bullock cart or fork-tailed bird are all you'll see on the long road leading to the Madheshwara Temple & Home Stay, Chikyelcheti, in the MM Hills area.

The house and temple are at the end of a mud road on the edge of the forest, land marked by a huge and ancient peepal tree, and an unnamed lake. Behind the house, Mr. Subbanna's urli field stretches away in the afternoon sun, randomly punctuated by sunflowers. There are haystacks, calves, goats, and theirs are the only sounds and smells in the air.

Mr. Subbanna takes us deep into the forest, into stream beds and ravines, down paths only he knows. We see wild flowers and peacock feathers; tiger tracks, elephant dung and bear claw marks in tree trunks; the remains of tribals' campfires. We stare into the twilight for elephants on the distant blue-green hills.

In the guest room, the roof is only partial, made of red Mangalore tiles. The rest is a canopy of bougainvillea flowers from a twisted tree growing out of the earth floor, and the starlit night sky beyond. With the feeling of having slept in the pages of A Midsummer Night's Dream, you wake to the smell of woodsmoke and the sound of roosters calling.