What all comes to your mind when you think of Nashik? Wine? Vineyards? Shirdi? Trimbakeshwar? Well.. you are right. And wrong… There is more and much more.. There are fields, there are lakes, there are farms and birds and forts and villages and village crafts and then there is UTOPIA !! And there are creators of Utopia .. Adwait and Uttara !
As you cross the city of Nashik and approach Gangapur Village road, you start smelling the fresh nature’s air and green fields, farms lined with vegetable and flower plantations start welcoming you. After you leave Sula to your left and York Winery to your right, you see this signboard guiding you towards Utopia. Your get on an uneven village road, which incidentally start to give you the feeling of having reached the country side and adds to the flavor of the journey. You cross the vegetable plantations and after winding your way through couple of lefts and rights, you finally see the Utopia’s gates wide open as if welcoming you to the natures lap.
The Utopia… dictionary meaning of the word is Paradise, Heaven.. and trust me, that’s what this Utopia is. Beautifully laid out 10 Cottages around a lush green carpet grass lawns having lovely flower (Roses and Lilly’s) corners. At the backside of cottages along the periphery of the property are the Papaya, Lemon, Coconut, Mango and lots of different variety of trees and creepers and flowers, which are used to supply fresh fruits and vegetables for consumption. Then there is large open plot where their staff does the farming for fresh vegetables. We could see them taking out the harvest of fresh ground nuts which our son enjoyed watching a lot.
Few words about the making of Utopia (as gathered from the creator cum curator cum owner of Utopia).. This place the child of labour, passion and dream of this couple, Uttara and Adwait. I leave the story of their reaching Nashik to spend their life there, dropping their very lavish and glamorous lives behind at Mumbai, for you to discover when you reach Utopia. But I must tell you that Adwait is a Master of the art of carpentry and specializes in antique furniture design and restoration. It is fascinating to know is that every door, window, tables, chairs, wooden wall artifacts are all either made/restored by Adwait himself or has been collected by him by travelling across the length and breadth of the country in search of ancient and antique wooden furniture from various villages and towns. There are these two large ancient wooden swings at the property, beautifully carved and restored. Each cottage at the property has a story to tell and each piece of furniture you use has a history to it. Can it get any more authentic a farm stay than this?
And then there is this area at the property which is the reception cum dining area. But more than that it the melting pot of the property where the guests sit and chat and share their experiences of life, of travel, or any or everything. The charming hosts, Adwait and Uttara are there in the mornings and evenings to join the guests to share their life and stories. They say that’s what makes them most happy as that’s what they had dreamt of from this place. People from diverse background coming to the property to experience the nature, village life, delicious food made under the supervision of Uttara herself (she is gorgeous cook !!) and more importantly interact with each other and with them to share their life’s experiences. And that’s one of the main reasons they don’t provide in room catering services and they do not permit any meals in the rooms.
If that’s not enough for you, then Adwait would guide or may even accompany you to the various types of walks he suggests you must take.. the lake walk, the temples walk, the pottery making walk, to see milking of cows, trek to nearby hills and forts, visit to nearby villages to see the potters, the ironsmiths and various other village artisans. There is this small pond in which they intend to breed fishes and that would give you the experience of fishing.
Mind you, while the property takes you into another world while you stay there, it also offers you with the all worldly comforts like Air conditioning, geysers, in room tea coffee/ biscuits, comfortable clean beds and linen etc. To keep you engaged at the property there are variety of indoor games like handmade chess board, Fusball table, Carrom board etc.
So I strongly recommend that if you are a traveler who loves to really leave the city life behind, explore the nature, get the authentic experience of village life, enrich your soul and body.. then think no longer. Utopia is the place or you !
