It is a three-year-old memory and even now I can see the morning stealing over the lawns of  Thaneerhulla bungalow and silver oaks streaming golden light. I can hear the narrow, leafy trails of the coffee plantations in Polibetta,Kodagu, come alive with bird songs. And feel a healing silence fall on my senses like dew. This is the memory I revisit whenever the spirit aches for a sanctuary and when the traffic of every day existence in the city gets too intrusive.

 Thaneerhulla bungalow, where we had spent a few days was a preserved memory too, dating back to 1870, to times when leisure meant refinement and an inviolable personal space. An estate home is something most of us have either read about or seen in vintage photographs. But Tata Coffee Limited (TCL) has lovingly  restored seven plantation bungalows in its thriving  coffee estates in  Chickmagalur and Kodagu or Coorg, and turned them into holiday homes. Thaneerhulla in Kodagu is arguably the showpiece bungalow of the Plantation Trails experience.

Here and in other Tata plantation homes, you instantly reclaim the lost connection with pure breeze scented with coffee and cardamom, with a night sky speckled with stars bigger and closer than you remember them in your city, with the fragrance of dewy grass and the crunch of leaves and moist earth under your feet, with trees (clad in lacy pepper creepers) that seem to disappear in the clouds, with traffic jams caused by elephants who may cross your path nonchalantly. 

Thaneerhulla bungalow with its gabled roof, picture windows, stone steps and sunny porch is  every city dweller’s dream come true. Flanked by twin lawns, it lazes amid sapota and mango trees and flower beds and has a dining and living room, kitchen, utility areas and a guest room on the ground floor. There are two breath-taking heritage rooms and two smaller guest rooms on the first floor. 

The scale of the bungalow reminds visitors just how cramped life is in city homes. High ceilings, long corridors, oxygenated rooms looking out at the plantations and detailed with prized rungs, mirror consoles, gleaming teak and  rosewood antiques, window seats and a sense of  pervasive warmth make you want to kick off your shoes, wiggle your toes and curl up on a sofa, and never leave.  

 This is not the cold perfection of a hotel but the lived-in feel of a home that is always welcoming, always nourishing. I still wistfully remember the dining room with its tall windows sheathed in sheers and smiling florals, its  eight seater dining table, antique side boards and the delicious meals served by the gracious resident staff.

The two heritage rooms with restored wooden flooring, picture windows and a fireplace each can be equated with Presidential suites for the simple reason that they are the size of a modest city apartment. Just the  attached baths are the size of a large living room. One heritage room even has an ante-room with a bed and a dresser of its own.

Each Tata home is unique in its setting and scale and when you are done replenishing yourself with all that they have to offer, go trek through the plantations and witness how coffee travels from a bean to your cup.  Or visit the Tibetan Monastery in Bylakuppe to bow before the golden silence of towering Buddhas. Or bathe elephants at the Dubare Elephant Camp a few miles away from Polibetta.  One thing is for sure, long after you have returned, your toes will long to wiggle, your sprit will want to soar as high as a silver oak  and your lungs will crave the morning dew of Kodagu. 

http://www.tatacoffee.com/  , reach.plantationtrails@tatacoffee.com                                                                                        

Pics- Sanjay Ramachandran