It is 5 pm. But these days, dusk doesn’t shy away from paying an early visit to the Wah Tea Estate Plantation Stay in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. Early nightfall means Deepak Prakash (63) must head home quickly from his favourite spot — the middle of the dizzying incline of Kangra’s tea gardens.

At his home-turned-homestay, ‘The Lodge at Wah’, an eager audience awaits him.

A tea connoisseur by day, Deepak turns into a storyteller by night. Cups of chai are passed around the group as he begins his tale: “In the early 1900s, our forefather Sheo Parsad owned a simple provisions shop in Dehradun. Here, he also sold tea that he purchased from Goodrich Tea Estate in Kaulagarh.”

Sheo soon discovered that the beverage was a hit with customers. Thus began his quest to diversify into tea. For ages, the ‘Chaiwalas’ — as Deepak’s family came to be respectfully known — continued their storied tradition of growing and brewing tea. Fun fact: by 1960, they were producing approximately 10 million kilograms of tea from estates across India!

But it is not just the family’s tryst with tea that is superimposed against a rich history; it’s also the land on which the homestay now stands. As Deepak shares, it dates back to 1857, when it was first established by the British! The estate saw decades of continuous cultivation and even survived an earthquake which struck the region in 1905.

The Lodge at Wah: Inspired by local traditions and ideas

Deepak’s son, Surya Prakash, a fourth-generation tea virtuoso, recalls the vacations he spent at the family’s tea estate as some of his best. However, these visits were short-lived, owing to the absence of a family home in Kangra. It was during one such trip that Deepak had his moment of........

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