Musafir Café, the Netflix series about building a new life in the hills, is a reality for Saumya Kulshreshtha. A publishing and marketing consultant, she left Delhi five years ago to build a homestay in Bir. Born and brought up in the city, for her, leaving the city was not simply about moving to the mountains but changing the pace of life.
The seeds of Terra Poetica were sown in 2021, when Kulshreshtha was already running a smaller homestay in Bir. Hosting people, she realised, came naturally to her. But she wanted to build something beyond a conventional mountain stay. Sounds like the story of Chander Mohan Sharma played by Vikrant Massey in Musafir Café? The TV series is a reminder of how the country’s hospitality sector has changed. It’s about the experience now, rather than moving into a luxury space. Kulshreshtha has built it with a similar energy.
Kulshreshtha says that her homestay is “isolated enough”, but with all the modern amenities, “you stay connected”. Toofan, her cat, is her only companion, yet she doesn’t feel lonely there. The mountains and the travellers who return again and again have made her feel as if they are family.
Inside Terra Poetica
It was in Gunehr, a village outside Bir, a 10-12 hour bus/car ride from Delhi, that she met architect Frank Schlichtmann and discovered the possibility of building the homestay with mud. Hence the name Terra Poetica, or “poetry of the earth”.
Located on a secluded mountainside, with a brook flowing below, the property is reached by a path through the fields and alongside a small canal. The journey to the homestay, Kulshreshtha says, is part of the experience. With little commercial activity around the village, Gunehr retains a sense of quiet and community that drew her to the location much like Massey in the TV series.
The house, spread across roughly 1.5 kanals, is largely built with cob. Mud has been used not merely as a building material but as part of the space's aesthetic and philosophy. The structure is designed for light and ventilation, reducing its dependence on electricity. There are no ceiling fans, coolers, exhaust fans, or individual geysers, and solar panels provide heating.
There are three private rooms — Raqs, Khayaal and Saaz — along with a dormitory made up of clay capsules. A library of about 1,500 books anchors the common area, alongside a fireplace and an open kitchen. From stuffed parathas and Himachali dishes to homemade chutneys and winter meals, everything is cooked by two local women on a chulha. The earthy interiors, red-oxide floors and mud furniture create a space that feels deliberately uncluttered.
But Terra Poetica is perhaps defined as much by what happens there as by what has been built. Reading circles, acoustic music sessions, open-air film screenings, poetry and writing retreats, and walks to the nearby brook invite guests into a slower rhythm. For some, the attraction is simply the possibility of sitting with a book, listening to the water, or spending time in the garden's designated silence zone.
We see something similar at Netflix’s Musafir Café, where travellers become part of the community. Rahil Qureshi, an author, hosts book-reading sessions in the series; Terra Poetica hosts poetry-reading sessions with Harish Budhwani, a recent graduate of the Berklee College of Music.
In fact, one of her favourite memories comes from a poetry residency she hosted with Budhwani. She says a mother, a guest, had penned a heartfelt poem during her stay. “When people show their softest, most expressive core, that stays with me,” she says.
Kulshreshtha lives in the Café’s premises while continuing her work across events, education, publishing, marketing and the creative sector.