Nature, Uninterrupted

Farm Cafe at the quaint Tooth Mountain Farms in Karjat, Maharashtra, created by interior designer Shabnam Gupta, is set in nature, and has a homely, warm aura about it. It stays true to its motto — feed your soul — with fresh and organic meals amidst nature.

- DEEPA NAIR

There is a big place in my heart where memories of visiting and experiencing some gorgeous spaces reside. They are places I’ve felt completely at home with due to their warmth, down-to-earth spirit, attention to detail and mostly for their sheer individuality. Among these the one closest to my heart is a quaint family weekend home I visited in 2012, which eventually was featured in Better Interiors, and has been the site of some thematic shoots too… thanks to its generous owners. Through all these visits (and due to the long photography hours), the joy of exploring and soaking in the beauty of the property was a gift embraced with open arms. The space I am referring to here is the Sagar weekend home which was designed by interior designer Shabnam Gupta who is the principal at the Mumbai-based, The Orange Lane.

A large part of the project is the greenery and nature’s bounty which surrounded it, replete with a mountain and a river which run close-by. It also has the nurturing ways of the landscape architect — Neelam Sagar — in the family to credit for the greenscape. She has a flourishing nursery inside the premises where she grows her precious plants and trees. Post 2014, the family decided to let out the house during weekends — the response (through word of mouth) was so tremendous that all the personal rooms of the family got converted into guest bedrooms, Shabnam tells me. “In fact, many a times, we don’t have a place to stay there, so we are in the process of making our own house,” she smiles. Shabnam is also part of the Sagar family, like her artist sister Ganga Kadakia, and the weekend house or the Tooth Mountain Farms, as it is known today, is owned by their parents Neelam and Prem Sagar and brother Shiv Sagar.