Waking up early, having fresh, warm meals with locally produced ingredients—all organic if possible, sustainable clothing—all handmade if possible, regular workouts or movement every single day, walking in the flowery valley, hikes, treks, snow... these were the pictures I had in mind about slow living. When I moved to the mountains, I had imagined such a slow and fulfilling life.
After living in this Himalayan village for 6 months, starting a homestay, and running a cafe, I can confirm that I’ve not started my sourdough batter yet, nor has my life been as slow as I expected.
Turns out, the slow life I was aspiring for is not slow at all. In fact, it takes a lot of planning, and most of the time, you don't even get enough time to rest in between the chores.
Following the Sun With the Chores
Life in this rural village is actually slow if you know how to slow down. I would like to translate that to: slow living in the mountains calls for some fast actions. Because, most of the time, it is not about slowing down time but having expectations that align with reality.
I had to learn the hard way that not everything I wish to do in a day is achievable for many practical reasons. In fact, the slow life here demands planning and action within a time-frame.
Want to go shopping and return to your bed on the same day? Well, you'd better plan for leaving early because you never know about the animals on the way if it gets dark.
You want to collect wood from the forest? You'd better get up on time and get it done when there is light.
You want to take that spontaneous trip? Well, prepare for the weather changes or prepare yourself with accessories that can help you with hiking or walking in the snow or mud.
None of these means you can’t live without being bothered about these little details. It is just that if you break these unwritten rules, you’ll have to face the risks associated with it. This life might not give you the convenience of doing things whenever you feel like it.
You see, there are many places where these are the “normal” way of life. But, I never had to think of any of these in my life much, since most of my life was spent in a tropical plain and cities. You just had to be scared of humans.
I found a huge shift in my lifestyle after living here. The one to follow the Sun, pretty much all seasons. We get limited time in the sun before winter, and so I need to do the chores, hard labour, before the light goes off. That means, I need to plan my day and act according to the plan—or I miss the day.
Which most of the time means an early morning. I’m so used to working late at night when everyone is quiet. However, that meant I would be delaying the tasks in the morning, which, if not done in the morning, would get postponed to the next day. And that is a bigger change I’m yet to get used to in my life.
This is where the luxuries that come with money make sense. I no longer think of money as evil. Rather, a mere exchange of energies, where I pay for my own convenience to use someone’s idea, labour or some other resource.
If I want to spend more time working at night and sleep in the morning, I can appoint a labourer to chop the wood for me.
Bored of cooking, get a house help to do it.
Hate washing my clothes, call for help, and it’ll get done.
Yes, money gives you a lot of comforts in dealing with these chores. However, that doesn’t promise you the peace of mind, even in getting these mundane things done.
I still have to catch up with the labourers who go to chop the wood and bring it—I need to be present to check and see if things are correct. If they’ve delivered what was promised. Attend the calls and more.
My house help, who comes to clean the place, used to call me in the morning itself just for me to hand over the broom and mop. She knows where it is, but that’s how it works.
From packing the clothes to catching up with the ladies till they reach here, to the follow-ups, I later felt like it would be much better if I took a timeout and just did it.
So, without planning the day, it is chaos. And that doesn’t really help with developing a calm mind.
Slow but Steady, But You Need to Be Steady
I feel everything I went through in the past few years has prepared me for this.
For example, one of the puppies got parvovirus, and things got really messy. He was on IV for almost a week. If I didn't know how fasting, autophagy and the importance of slowly getting out of fasting work, I would have overfed my puppy and made things worse.
Now, even when he asks for food in desperation, I know what slow feeding does to him. It can immensely help him to rebuild his system and see him gradually progress, so I am calm even when he asks for extra food.
The younger me would not have had this kind of patience. No waiting period. No calmness whatsoever. Everything had to be hurried. Everything needed to be fast.
If anything, these puppies and the mountains taught me, it is to slow down, the very hard way. And, see how things do happen beautifully. I no longer connect slowness to unproductivity or wasting time.
This life in Shilha village also taught me that consistency is more important than speed. It is okay to be slow, but if you keep doing it, the things you plan, you’ll be in a much better place. It is okay if I can bring less wood in a day; if I keep doing it, I will have enough to last 3 months.
Apart from that, one of the hardest lessons I learned comes under patience. How hard it is to practise if you’re not used to it, and so much more.
Patience All the Way
Beyond the aesthetics we get to see on social media, the slow life I found here was not as aesthetic as I expected. Not so fun all the time, and it certainly didn’t grant free access to the slow life.
Life was mostly as aesthetic as I made it to be—and that demanded effort, a lot of it in fact.
It was very normal to have a running nose, mud-stained clothes and non-aesthetic utensils. I had to make a very active choice in keeping myself clean, the surroundings clean, and also curate the things I had in my life.
Even then, the aesthetic ones were out of the picture when it came to functionality. The aesthetic mugs broke down in the extreme weather, whereas the good old steel glasses lasted. I meant to say, you create your own reality in the middle of chaos or even at a beautiful place like Shilha.
When you’ve lived the reality, all of a sudden you start to respect those who make videos with the fairy cottage life. Because it takes effort to dress up, go out in nature and make videos. It takes allotting time, dedicated time, to do all those things, put it together and also have enough courage to showcase it.
Let me attest that most of the slow-life chores that show up on your for-you page are not as easy as they seem or happen in shorter time-frames. Definitely not in seconds like in reels. It sometimes takes days, weeks, months and even years.
But let me assure you, once you start to try it, even though it slows you down, you’re going to enjoy it. Or not. But, at least you get to know you don’t enjoy it instead of wondering what if…
And, most of the time, great things happen after testing your patience. My life got easier because I was patient in many situations. I wasn’t shouting at someone for postponing their task for the 100th time, and finally, I took all the responsibility and got it done myself.
I learned to be patient when the roads were closed due to rain and landslides.
I was taught to be patient when the WiFi guys didn’t repair it for more than a week after the natural disasters.
The truth is, patience is your only tool at hand when sudden surprises like landslides, blackouts and cloud bursts happen. So, even if you plan your week, month or days, there will be emergencies which alter your plans.
Such emergencies not only test your patience but also change your priorities at the moment. So, as contradictory as it sounds from my last point, even planning your life won’t help in some situations.
And you soon realise everything passes in life, and you need to let go of things faster.
Time Is Everything, and Managing That Too
One of the major goals in life, even before I started travelling, was to practice sustainability and live as organically as possible. I was so drawn to this idea to an extent that I made many attempts to practise it in my life in the cities, my hometown and the other options I tried, but it was not quite possible.
That is when I shifted to the mountains in the beautiful, mighty Himalayas.
I wanted to live in a mud house or a wooden house which is built for this weather with natural materials. But I ended up choosing a concrete one since I fell in love with the balcony of this house. You’ll never see me complaining about the decision, even among the hardships.
I was so eager to start my life here, and I don’t think waiting for the perfect option would have served me well. With pretty much everything changing here with seasons, waiting for the right time was never an option.
And the moment I started living here, the value of time took on another magnitude. Today, if you ask me what the one skill I value the most, I would say it is Time management. Especially in a place like Shilha village, your life can be so much easier if you learn to manage your time.
Sometimes that also means you get to live in a different timeline—more like time travel.
I mean, sometimes it takes ages for you to reply online, which is “ages” in today’s times, but used to be a normal or faster response time in another time-period. So, the slow living or this remote living experience puts you into a sort of time-travel experience. But I can assure you there are benefits to this as well.
You are more present in the world around you. You do eventually fall into your comfort zone once you’re settled into the flow of it, but still you are alert most of the time.
You get to live pretty close to the nature and feel fresh after a walk or just by going outside.
You also feel grounded going outside because the giant mountains and clouds make sure they take care of that part.
The trees will tell you to take it easy. The dogs that follow will take you to the next best spot with a beautiful view.
And in a moment, you are back to life with a new form of energy kindled in you again. A lot of these moments have to do with who you surround you with as well.
The Collective Living: The Community
As much as I love living alone, the life in remote places like this so easy just because the facilities are already there with an active community. And, the help from your neighbours to random people in the village is what make this slow life easier for me.
The other day, we had our LPG, cooking gas cylinder supplier came to the village. Everyone carried their metal gas cylinders to the road, got it exchanged for the new one and brought it back home.
Now, I’m not that strong to carry the cylinder till the road which includes trails that ascends. Somebody helped me carry it till there, got the new one which is heavier, and brought it back to my place.
I get advised about the smallest preparations I need to make for each weather such as to keep the tap going during the winter to prevent from water freezing in the pipes.
I’m offered handmade woollen socks to buy for me and my guests.
I mean, there are a lot of tiny little things that makes this experience a collective one, living with this community.
It is not always fun though. The stark differences between your mindset and the villagers can cause problems if you are not careful enough. For me, this is a chapter in my life whereas for most villagers, this is their entire life. So, asking to change something or even try something new is not a good idea most of the times.
One of the changes I want to bring to the village is a waste management system, especially for plastic. I strongly believe that if there is a proper system in place, we can reduce the plastic waste flying around the valley. It is a sad sight and even sadder to see people throwing away wrappers and bottles in the open.
The other one is to bring the work of women to the forefront, especially with the fabrics they make and the art. The kids here are also very talented but lack a proper training most fields. Once given guidance, they can achieve a lot more in life.
Well, that is a lot of plans for the time I have here but do you see why I feel like extending my stay here?
All that being said, I feel this blog has tried to consolidate a lot of things under one roof and not sure if that did justice to what I wanted to convey. I’m pretty happy with my life here. I would really want to get some land and plan a sustainable home in the future. Let’s see.
When I moved here, I thought I would have time to try out all my interests, but turns out most of my time is spent on chores and preparations. You blink, and you might miss what was happening in the village or on the other side of the village. But that is pretty normal for the first year, I guess. There is another side to this life as well. Since I’m not distracted much with the conveniences, I can make space for my interests—maybe at a slower pace.
The concept of slow living for people can be different, for places can be different. For me, the mountains taught me an important lesson—the time windows are so real! Well, it didn’t just teach me, I had to make it into practise and perspective.
