Category: Experience

My upbringing has been what is expected of a typical middle-class household. My father is a medical practitioner while my mother is now retired from her teaching job with the state government. For the first 20 years of my life, I have seen my parents save every paisa they could in order to gather funds for my study, wedding and so many other things that were to decide my future.

They never spent money on even the very basic luxuries that people earning for themselves normally do. They funded my higher education and also contributed in my wedding. I felt indebted to them more so than I already did for all their sacrifices that they made in order to ensure a better life for me.

Last year, my mother retired from her job and was supposed to get some funds in the form of gratuity and other savings that her employer deducted every month from the time she had started working. We were discussing how best we could invest the funds we were about to receive since keeping that much money with ourselves did not feel safe. They both agreed that they would invest in an apartment in the city which would be used by me and my family in typical parental fashion and in accordance with their nature of sacrifice. However, I strongly objected to the idea since I could not even think of anything like what they had planned.

I reinforced my decision of getting them a retirement-cum-vacation home wherein they can go as and when they please and enjoy the luxuries they never did throughout their lives. They were reluctant to the idea earlier but they knew I was not one to back off from my decisions.

Once it was agreed upon mutually, I started looking for options for their retirement home. Hills seemed the first and honestly the only choice for location since there is no denying the fact that they still have the cleanest environment that anyone can hope for in reachable distances.

While searching online, I came across Chester Hills as one of the leading contenders for the investment. Everything that I researched online was in favor of their incredible deliveries, construction quality and living experience that was being provided in their homes. I decided to visit them with my parents on a weekend and that was it for us. Getting to live in the lap of hills with such peaceful surroundings and fresh environment was just so surreal. More than that, they had all the luxuries that I always desired for my parents right at the doorstep. Lush green areas to walk in, movie theater for recreation and gym to keep them in good shape, Chester Hills truly had everything.

It’s been nearly a year of us owning a home at Chester Hills and it was the best decision we could have taken for a blissful post-retirement life for my parents.

That’s our Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

Mental health has been a tabooed subject in India for the longest time. Discussing it with any one, even with the members of your own family is often retributed with ridicule, some lame joke or sheer ignorance. Being quiet about it and pretending nothing’s wrong has often been the go to alternative many mental health patients have chosen to go with.

I have had multiple episodes of really bad mental health over the years where I just could not function as a normal human being anymore. It seemed like the walls were coming in from all sides and I was getting crushed in between. Most family members thought I was just exaggerating something that should be ignored. And the rest tried to help but did not know how to.

While trying to find solace in other places, I came to realize that whenever I visited any place that was based in a hilly region with pristine and beautiful views, my mind felt like it could breathe so much better. I felt a great deal of personal space and freedom that seemed lacking in my regular life. So I started visiting hills regularly in order to keep my mental health in check and make sure that I was living the best life I could.

With time however, commuting back and forth to hills started to take a toll on my body. The traveling started to seem more tiring than relaxing. This is when I decided that I need some place where I can stay for a longer period of time, go as and when I please and not worry about burning a hole in my pocket everytime I stay. Hotels were definitely out of the list as they lacked that feeling of personal belonging and seemed too commercial. Other properties were costlier to stay in and even more so for longer periods of time.

I came across a Chester Hills advertisement that said I could own a home in hills of Solan with easy EMI options. And that’s when it hit me. Why travel like nomads when I can have a permanent place of solace. A place to let go and replenish my inner self. I have been living here on and off for the last 2 years now and these have been the best two years of my life. With a homely place to live with surroundings this good, my mental health has never been better.

This is my Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

I have been a city lad for the majority of my life. I have worked multiple corporate jobs spanning across 4 decades and was a management level employee at one when I decided to retire. Though it might seem like the reason for my retirement would have been that I have earned enough or did not want to work anymore, that is not the case.

I have enjoyed being a workaholic and spending most of my time perfecting my skills and giving the best I can to improve my performance, no matter what profile I worked on. Most of the time, that meant skipping meals, rarely working out and eating untimely. It helped me grow quickly in my career and make a name for myself in the industry as someone who works more than expected and delivers over and above what is asked for. However, it took a toll on my health that I only realized when it was a little too late.

I was about to be 60 when my son asked me and my spouse to get ourselves checked up professionally at a laboratory for anything that might be worrisome or dangerous in the coming times. I hesitated and even repulsed him at the idea but had to agree with him. Little did I know that one session was going to change my life. I was diagnosed with acute liver disease and was told to get it immediately checked up. Along with that, many other smaller complications also existed though I never felt anything.

My physician recommended a strict diet and workout regime along with medications. I finally quit my job because I wanted to take care of myself in a way that made it easier for my kids to take care of me. However, the improvement was slow and not as expected. My kids asked me and my wife to go to some hill station and spend some time there in a better environment. We chose Solan as the destination as my wife had relatives there who could be called upon if required.

We spent a week there in a homestay apartment in Chester Hills. And that one week was when my improvement really picked up pace. We all were amazed at how much a cleaner environment and being surrounded by greenery and fresh air helped me recover. That is when we decided that this is not something that can be done during a vacation but rather needed longer stays. We got to know that the apartment next to the one we were staying in was available for purchase. Without any delays, we got in touch with the sales team who guided us through each and every component of the purchase process making it feel effortless.

And we could not have made a better decision. I am doing really well now and even many of the medications have been tapered off. Thanks to the gifts of nature that are readily available at our new home. That’s my Chester Hills story, what’s yours?

I moved to Chester Hills soon after COVID restrictions were lifted after the first lockdown. During that time, workation was a rarely heard or known concept in India. And no one really thought that some time like this could exist.

However, once people realized they did not have to go to the office every day and could work from anywhere that had power and internet connectivity, the whole phenomenon just took over the world. India, being an epicenter of ever-growing I.T. Industry has seen the greatest increase in people moving to remote locations that are closer to nature and prefer to work from there.

I rented out an apartment in a project named Chester Hills and started working from there. As far as basic necessities go, I had pretty good internet connectivity, the homes came with power backup, elevators, daily need shops nearby and a plethora of things to turn to when you wish to not look at your computer screen anymore. I woke up everyday to a beautiful sunrise from the hills with a cool breeze every morning flowing in through the windows. No Air Conditioning and still it felt so nice throughout the year.
However, my fairy-tale-like-story was about to come to an end when in 2022, my organization requested me to join the office in-person at-least 2 days a week. This meant I either had to commute for 10 hours twice a week or move back to my home in the city. I discussed this with my parents and told them that I did not want to leave what I had here in Chester Hills. And that’s when my father came up with an idea that was amazing. He suggested that we buy the property that I was living in as a second home in the hills. Chester Hills provided an option where they provide rental income if we let them manage our property and that’s what we chose. Alongside this, they also provided free stays in the property which we can use as and when we please. And then again, we can always have our home back and enjoy the luxuries of nature.

We did exactly that, and since then, our Chester home does not just bring us memories, but also regular income that is so much more than we could have asked for.

That’s my Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

I have been working in the Marketing industry for the last three decades. I have covered a variety of industries over these years and have been working in Pharmaceuticals for the last 7 years.

Recently my company set up a manufacturing plant in Solan and wanted me to take care of marketing operations there. This plant is touted to be the plant that is going to make our organization’s presence spread to PAN India.

It was a very unexpected and a little scary opportunity for me as I had spent almost all of my life in the same metro city that I was born in and had all my affairs settled in it only. My friends, relatives and professional circle are all present in the same neighborhood. I had gotten so used to living in the city that it seemed nearly impossible to move to somewhere else, let alone a hilly city.

However, when duty calls, there is only so much that you can think about it before taking the call. I requested my organization to let me know if they will provide me a place to live there. They told me that they will take care of the rentals and other related expenses but since I was about the first senior employee of the company to go there, I had to find a suitable place for myself.

I went online and searched for options that might make me feel a little at home. The one name that kept coming around was Chester Hills. I called a customer servicing number that they had on the website and a very knowledgeable sales representative briefed me about the project and its offerings. I planned a weekend outing for the whole family to visit the project as well as spend some time in the hills.

During my visit, I was amazed to see just how much the homes felt city-like from inside while the surroundings were just so serene and beautiful. I immediately asked my organization to finalize Chester Hills as my stay for my tenure there. And seeing the immense earning potential that the project had, I also purchased another unit on very manageable EMIs in order to have such a nice property for myself and my family for when I retire.

This is my Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

I have been practicing medicine for almost half of my life in a metro city alongside my husband. We have a private practice that has been going really well for the last 3 decades. With our kids settled abroad, we find company in each other at and off work and have been doing so for the past couple of years.

During our early years, we used to live in a community that had sectoral homes, and there used to be a park nearby where we went for a brisk walk every day. But shortly afterward the pollution levels started rising and walking in the park felt suffocating. We used to get short of breath mid-routine and returned back home because it felt like it was doing more harm than good. We soon moved to a housing project where we had a spacious apartment along with many nice amenities.

Years passed by and we continued living in our apartment enjoying a comfortable life. However, the one thing that we always felt lacking was the boundation of mostly staying indoors as we did not like breathing the open air where we lived. Pollution levels have been increasing since the last decade and they made the situation worse. We missed the long walks we had and the release from immense stress from our jobs and personal lives that those walks provided. There always was a certain sadness that we tried to ignore and overcome by keeping ourselves busy with work.

But age had other plans for us. Last year, both of us felt the need to bid farewell to our work as we felt to be physically and mentally stressful beyond bearable levels. We started looking for a retirement home where we can enjoy what we could not for all those years due to our commitment to our work. A patient of ours who was a Colonel in the army told us that he was spending his retirement years in a project called Chester Hills in Solan. He invited us for a free stay that was being offered by the project itself in a private space inside the project. During our visit there, we connected with the place and the property immediately. The plethora of amenities that Chester Hills provides would have made us feel right at home when we moved in. The pristine hills and air around provided us with the best possible environment to have the walks we longed for. We decided to purchase a flat in Solan there that was under construction and seems like they will deliver it well before the committed time of possession.

That’s my Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

I have been a shy and introverted person ever since I was a child. I never like to go out much and even as an adult, the most company I had was my family during festival celebrations. My comfort zone was reinforced by my job as a Chartered Account for multiple MNCs.

Being married with two kids, I never had time to think about anything else than my work and my family life. This in a way helped me maintain a strict routine which I was very comfortable in. However, after the first quarter of 2020, everything changed. Yes, that’s when the whole country was introduced to COVID-19 pandemic.

Everything was shut down for weeks. Though I was initially relieved that I did not have to commute everyday and can enjoy a little relaxed time, I was soon hit with a realization that was going to impact me in ways I could not even imagine at that time.

The long period of isolation and lack of social interaction was something that I, being an introvert, thought would be a kind of dream. However, it started affecting me and my mental health negatively. I started to long for interactions and drives with people. General talks that did not mean much but unknowingly kept me uplifted at all times. I started staying quiet and was always surrounded by negative thoughts regarding almost everything. Even though I had everything, something felt missing.

When the lockdown was lifted, I expected to return to normalcy. But it felt like the damage to my mental health was already done. I consulted multiple professionals for help and tried as many activities as I possibly could. But I never felt complete. Going to malls, watching movies, having walks in the park, going for a long drive. You name it and I would have done it but nothing helped. The city seemed to suffocate me.

One day my family decided to take a long weekend off and go to some hill station for an outing. And little did I know what this long weekend was going to provide me with. As soon as we left the cityscape behind, the sight of hills full of green trees and water flowing nearby hit me like a breath of fresh air. It felt like a black and white picture suddenly changed to a colored one. We took a hotel room in Solan that had a view of the valley from its window. During our 4 day stay there, the sight of greens every morning, sound of birds chirping, water stream flowing down the mountains. I was awestruck like I was never before. And my family witnessed me returning back to my normal self and felt even happier that I was.

That is when I decided that a second home in the hills is what I need. And after some research, we shortlisted flats in Solan at Chester Hills as our second home. It had some amazing views of the valley along with all high-end amenities that you generally expect in metro city residential projects. Ever since our purchase, we have been so happy and been living a full life.

That’s my Chester Hills story. What’s yours?

Being an army brat, I had a special relationship with the hills, especially those of Himachal Pradesh since my childhood. Most of my childhood, I lived in cities like Shimla, Solan, Mandi and have been fortunate enough to have been brought up in the most pristine of landscapes anyone can possibly imagine.

I saw people running towards hill stations in the summer vacations and used to think about the reason for their craze. As they say, you only know the true worth of something once you lose the possession of it. I moved to Delhi for my graduation. The first few months I found it really difficult to adjust there as my mind and body was not able to fathom the stark difference between what I had back at my home versus what I had in college and hostel.

Once I graduated, I was hired by a Delhi based IT firm. My first job was a dream one and I started enjoying the city life too as I had now adjusted perfectly to the urban jungle that I was living in. However, while everything seemed cheery and fine at the surface, deep down I was getting physically affected by the polluted environment. My body has always enjoyed the best of the air, water, and food that you can get in terms of being unadulterated. But the sudden downshift in the quality of all of those basic necessities had long-lasting effects on my health.

The worst hit was my skin and hair. I started losing hair about two years into my job and I could not stop it even after opting for all possible natural and artificial solutions. I became prone to seasonal skin allergies, the likes of which I had never experienced in the past. After consulting multiple dermatologists, the root cause of the problem was identified as the pollutants in air and the diet intake. I was stuck in a catch 22 situation. I had to choose between my health and the city lifestyle I enjoyed so much.

While I was in this dilemma, one of my school friends invited me to their home in Chester Hills, Solan. While having dinner, I told him about my health situation and he proposed that I stay in Chester Hills for a couple of days and experience the housing community for myself. They were offering free stay for people to experience hill life. And before I even knew, my dilemma was resolved. I found an option where I could enjoy what I was lacking for without sacrificing the luxuries I had in the city. I opted for an easy EMI plan that they offered and purchased a 2 BHK flat in Solan. And ever since I have moved in, my health has been so much better and I am able to focus on my work life as well. Hills. Amenities. Easy payment plans. What more can anyone ask for?

That’s my Chester Hills story, what’s yours?

I have been a city kid all my life and have lived in metros for the entirety of it. And thus got wrapped up by a sedentary lifestyle very early on in my life. The options for physical activities were limited and so was the time for it. During the school and even college years, physical activity was still there in my life in one way or another. The metabolism was good and it felt like I could eat anything without too many consequences.

However, ever since professional life started, the busy schedule has provided refuge to the excuses that often come with lack of physical activity of some kind. I tried joining the gym numerous times but that did not work out and I was not able to keep up with the timings. Sometimes due to late night calls with clients and sometimes because I was just so tired from the day’s work. I started putting up weight very quickly and soon it became clear that I was suffering from a medical condition and not just something that can be ignored by crediting it to the lifestyle.

The doctors suggest walking every day but I could not find a place suitable enough to do just that in the city. The air feels so polluted that breathing more of it seems like a worse option that being obese. And as the older age struck at the doors of life, being overweight started adding up to other problems like pain in the joints.

I asked my husband to move to someplace else as we both were retired and had plenty of time on our hands. Even more so, it now became an urgent need that had to be addressed in order to keep my health in good condition. We started talking to our friends, one of whom had recently moved to flats in Solan. We asked him how it felt and he was just in awe of it. He told us that he can sense the effects the clean air and the serene surroundings have on his health. He also talked about how he and his wife go out for strolls early in the morning accompanied by chirping sounds of the birds and of mountain streams flowing downhill. The housing project was none other than Chester Hills.

That is when we knew what we had to do. We booked a ready-to-move-in unit in Chester Hills and soon after shifted to live the rest of our lives in this beautiful place. And we could not be happier. I have been naturally losing weight and have been feeling fitter every day since. My body feels more agile and I can enjoy more of every day without having to medicate myself frequently and staying stuck indoors. I could not have asked for a better retirement. That’s my Chester story. What’s yours?

We often think of having skin allergies as something that happens to a person naturally. A person can either have it by birth or not at all. But this could not be farther from the truth. In recent years, many people have started to develop skin diseases due to high levels of pollutants and allergens in the air around them. This trend has mostly been seen in cities that are highly congested and densely populated. I have been one of those people.

I never suffered from any kind of skin disease from the childhood days when we lived in our native home back in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. I was a very active child, sweated profusely while playing, played outside in the sun for long hours and still never had any kind skin related issues.

We left our native place for better employment opportunities in the metro cities and started living in one such city. Early on, everything seemed cheerful and ‘happening’ as they say in the buzzing city life. The glimmer was attractive and we, like many others, were enjoying our time there. But after almost a decade, the city landscape started changing. Parks and open grounds were converted to residential or commercial housing and soon after we found ourselves living in a concrete jungle. As population density increased, the number of vehicles increased as well.

Breathing felt like ingesting something heinous through the respiratory tract. I contracted eczema soon after and things only went downhill from there. The pollutants in the air mixed together with the hot city temperatures presented the perfect conditions for such skin conditions to thrive. A couple of years later medications stopped having any effect at all. Things started to look grim. That is when COVID struck and we could see how the lockdown affected the air and thus my condition. Breathing felt easier. The temperatures cooled down by just a couple of degrees and even that had a great positive impact for people like me.

That is when I discussed with my family that I wanted to move back to the hills after my retirement in a couple of years as I knew that would help ease my situation. All of them were supportive and we settled at flats in Solan at Chester hills as our pick for our retirement home. It was the perfect combination of natural living with city-like amenities to make our time here convenient and fun. We moved just last year and my skin’s been thanking me ever since. I have recovered almost completely from my skin disease and that too without any medications. I can easily go out now for a walk without having to worry about contracting anything like that again.