Champak Deka (a former deep-sea diver with the Indian Navy) and his wife Anna-Louise Meynell (a textile designer) together transformed a patch of land in Bokakhat, Assam, and started the Medini Homestay.
A short drive from the Kaziranga National Park, what inspired the duo to create this sustainable oasis was an intent to empower the artisans of the Northeast through weaving and natural dyes.
The duo describe setting up the homestay as a journey of many learnings. In 2018, Deka attempted to work on the land, which had lost its topsoil layer due to extensive excavation.
“We just kept planting and learning as we went along,” he shares, adding that the land has not been treated with any chemicals from Day 1.
Today, the 500-plus trees that dot the landscape around Medini Homestay — including Indian olive, guava, mango, papaya, and banana — are proof of the benefits of organic farming.
The homestay has been built with bamboo, wood, straw, mud, cow dung, a small percentage of concrete bricks, cement, and corrugated sheets.
The furniture, here, is handmade. Bamboo and cane pieces come from Nagaland, the curtains are handwoven in the studio, and the mirrors and shelves are crafted by local artisans.
Meals at the homestay feature fragrant sticky and black rice, urad dal, mashed herbs, meat with local spices, fish in ou tenga curry, banana flower dishes, and the Assamese delicacy khar.
Practices of solar power and rainwater harvesting are stringently followed at the homestay. “Our sewage is treated in our custom-built biodigester plant, which has an anaerobic bacteria digester system,” Deka adds.
As a guest, there is plenty to keep you occupied here: The homestay is a short drive from Kaziranga National Park — a 430 sq km area with meadows and wildlife like one-horned rhinos, elephants, wild buffalo, swamp deer, and various birds.
You can also pay a visit to Meynell’s weaving studio, observe the hand-woven textiles, and get a glimpse of the making of Ahimsa silk (eri silk) here. In contrast to mulberry silk, which involves boiling the cocoons (thus killing the silkworms), eri silk production is a less harmful process.
The weaving studio also gives the artisans the impetus to earn through silk production and turning the silk into textiles.