Category: Experience

There’s nothing extraordinary to my life so I’ll begin by giving a simple and brief description of myself. I’m 37 and reside with my husband and kids in Pune. Living life as a wife, mother and Marketing Manager has been overwhelming, cumbersome, and at times frustrating, too. Striking a balance between personal and professional spheres hadn’t been easy in the past 10 years. Ever since my marriage, I hardly got any spare moment to enjoy being by myself as I’d been occupied with work and family round-the-clock.

The only ‘me time’ I ever got was a few minutes on my Instagram which finally led me to plan some alone time at a luxurious and calm place. It was in August this year. I was scrolling my screen and came across a friend’s post. There he was in Solan, having a great family time in the mesmerizing mountain ranges. I was dazzled by the beauty of the magnificent peaks that stretched all across some lavish villas along with lush green bushes and a variety of blooming flowers. I’ve been to Shimla a couple of times but never got a chance to halt at Solan, especially at the Chester Hills, and had a yearning to visit this place one day. You might call it my manifestation or simply my intention, but I called up my friend to get all the details for preparing a solo trip. Everything had to be preplanned both at home and the office. I talked it out with my husband and was glad to receive his support and assurance in managing everything in my absence.

On September 15, I landed in Chandigarh and hailed a cab to reach Solan. I entered the premises of Chester Hills and was thrilled to look at the breathtaking villas surrounded by colossal mountains. It was so serene and contrasted with the bustling city life I’d left behind. It all felt like an impossible dream but at last, I was here to reconnect with myself and Mother nature.

As I had boarded a morning flight, I was tired and wanted to relax. So, I went straight to the Spa section and melted all my worries away in that soothing massage strokes and tranquilizing ambiance. And the bath in the jacuzzi was the cherry on the cake! I realized at that very moment I had chosen the best place to plan out this sojourn. Soon after, I had a scrumptious meal in the cozy aura of the Multi-cuisine Dining Area filled with groups of families and friends.

Meanwhile, the Landscape Park adjoining the vicinity had already caught my eye and I decided to take a leisurely walk there. I felt so rejuvenated in the clean hilly air as I beheld the wonderful display of several eco-art pieces; an exquisite Buddha statue being the center of attraction. I went ahead to explore other areas and was amazed to see the myriad activities that one could indulge in. It was like a small peaceful city with a Gold-class Movie Theater, Sports section, Library, Shops, and a lot more to enjoy a fulfilling holiday experience.

In the evening, I strolled through the Meditation Park. And Heavens! The pergola structure over a tiny pond with a fountain in the middle was an enchanting sight. A few people were sitting quietly by the side of the water area, taking delight in that ataraxis feel. The Yoga Circles and the Exercise Stations there were exquisitely designed, allowing me to easily lose myself in that spiritual and pacifying vibe.

That’s how I spent my next 4 days there and when I came back home, I had a sense of satisfaction and calmness that still remains with me even after returning to that never-ending humdrum of life. That was my story of memorable times at Chester Hills. What’s yours?

I’d like to start by saying that I have never really been someone who was very keen on living in hilly areas instead of the cities. Yes, I liked the views the hills had to offer but to me, the conveniences of the city life mattered much more. My adherence to staying in the city was so strong that I rejected many offers of getting any kind of investment done in any of the hilly cities. But this was all before I visited Chester Hills.

I have been a keen real estate investor for as long as I remember. I started by investing in smaller local units like shops, booths, one-room apartments that presented good ROIs and were a safe and worthy investment. Later on, I started investing in full-size apartments, and researching for the same is how I actually found my own apartment that I purchased eventually. Down the road, the offerings started getting better and my interest in investing in or near metro cities increased.

I was invited to my friend’s daughter’s wedding last year and it was on a very nice farm in Solan. I have always preferred to stay in some AirBnBs or apartments while traveling as regular hotels seemed too formal for my taste. I stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Chester Hills for the 5 day period that I was there in. I got great parking space along with a lot of other things to pamper myself with during the off periods.

While I was relaxing one day in the green area inside the housing project, I met another gentleman who was ex-defense and was living in Chester Hills for the last one year. He and I started conversing about many things during which I told him that I am an investor by passion and love to invest in worthy estates. That’s when he told me that he just purchased another apartment in the same project just because the rental income as well as the price appreciation there was unmatched. The main reasons as per him were the impeccable delivery times of the developers as well as the quality of life being provided to the residents. I had already had a taste of what the project has to offer so it caught my attention.

I got in touch with my agent and asked him to get each and everything regarding the project checked and verified legally. Everything checked out perfectly and what surprised me more than anything else was that since its inception, the developers have been handing over the possession of the units way before than the original commitment. I understand how difficult it is to construct at this scale in a hilly region and that is what made this record even more impressive.

I got myself two units here, one of which I use to stay in whenever I am visiting here. The other one is generating good rental income as well as the price being appreciated every quarter. What more can an investor ask for?

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

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?