Have Your Storybook Vacation Experience at Yena’s Lodge in Pahalgam

Ask anyone who has spent time in Kashmir, and they’ll likely recall these famous lines:

Agar firdaus bar rū-ye zamīn ast,

Hamīn ast o hamīn ast o hamīn ast.

If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.

Growing up, Mahrukh Inayet (48) and Gulrukh Inayet Parmar (53), when asked to paint a landscape in art class, would just imagine their vacation home in Pahalgam, Kashmir, and draw it. Set in the quiet of the valley, the landscape was almost as if nature had dipped her brush into her finest colour palette and painted the masterpiece herself. 

And the sisters would try to replicate this onto their art sheets: the rolling grasslands, the wooden homes with sloping roofs that sat against a backdrop of towering deodar trees, and the river. Today, when you set foot into Yena’s Lodge — as they christened their vacation home when they turned it into a homestay in 2016 — you’re also bound to feel as if you’ve just entered a story setting.   

As Mahrukh shares, “When I look back at my childhood, I see it as an extremely idyllic time. Kashmir is gorgeous, and anyone who has grown up here will tell you how much they are in love with the place, not just with the landscape but also with its culture of hospitality.”

Yena’s Lodge is a beautiful homestay set in Pahalgam, Kashmir.

And it was in this “thriving cultural melting pot” that Mahrukh and Gulrukh grew up. Sharing that their mother had bought the lodge in the early 1970s, the sisters recall vacations spent there; one of their fondest memories involves crossing a rickety wooden bridge across the river to reach the lodge. 

“It was just like living in an Enid Blyton novel,” Mahrukh, an avid storyteller and journalist, says. “We would have picnics, and we’d go for walks and treks. My father, Mir Inayat Ullah, was a prominent environmentalist and wildlife expert. He retired as the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) for Jammu and Kashmir and was also an avid fisher. Everything we did growing up was absolutely wonderful.” 

It’s at the lodge that the sisters created plenty of memories. 

And now, they want you to do the same. 

Yena’s Lodge: Where time pauses 

Every time Gulrukh is at Yena’s Lodge, she makes it a point to spend some time on the deck that overlooks the Lidder River. “When we were children, we would spend all our time here. It was lovely: playing in the water, eating mangoes, and apples that had been washed in the river (and were chilled by the water), and listening to our dad tell us stories about the wildlife here,” she reminisces. 

Growing up, everything had a lesson that was rooted in conservation. 

Mir Inayat Ullah was indeed a great storyteller. And every story drew from his personal experiences. “My father was a wildlife lover,” Mahrukh explains, “and everything he did was to ensure that the wild was protected.” 

Gulrukh and Mahrukh are the sister duo behind converting a lodge into a homestay that welcomes guests from around the world.

As Mahrukh explains, “When the lodge was built in the 1970s, there were a lot of restrictions about the amount of building material and concrete you could use. As a result of compulsions and our own considerations, we try to build as sustainable a place as possible, using largely wood and brickwork; brickwork has been basic, so it’s largely a wood hut.” 

As part of the experiences they offer, there’s a guided tour to the picturesque Aru Valley. Then there’s a visit to the homes of the pastoral Gujjar community, which are made of mud and wood. 

Mahrukh shares, “The communities live in them during the summer months. In the winter, they move to the lower reaches. So what we have done is we’ve also created an experience where guests can visit these homes and be served typical Gujjar food: makki ki roti(flatbread made of maize flour) and Kashmiri chai.”