The Villa White House: an Indian homestay

If you’re looking for something more personal than a hotel, a homestay could be right up your - probably very cosy - street.

The inviting set up means you don’t sacrifice the comforts of more formal accommodation types, while home cooking and family life become integral to the experience. The homestay offered by The Villa White House is delightful. Located on the outskirts of Ajmer, Rajasthan, it’s also a convenient stopping off point on the long rail journey between Delhi and Jaisalmer.

My air-conditioned suite came with a large bathroom, flat-screen TV, a day room with day bed, communal fridge, dining table and chairs and a large balcony with more seating. Meals can be taken with other guests or at a time of your choosing, either in the garden, your room, the kitchen or in front of the communal TV. The food is cooked “with love” by Mrs Malhotra, the owner’s wife, and is well above the standard of most hotel restaurants.

Centred on two green gardens with well-placed shady seating areas, The Villa’s 15 rooms are scattered in small buildings around the grounds and are mercifully beyond the noise and bustle of Ajmer’s labyrinthine old town. Having said that, I strongly advise you to take the ten-minute rickshaw ride to Ajmer’s centre and enter the fray yourself. Your reward will be the Dargah, one of India’s most important pilgrimage sites and the tomb of Sufi saint Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti. Cover your head (that goes for you too, boys), leave your shoes and bags outside and join the pilgrims thronging the way to the inner courtyard and the saint’s burial site. Mayo College, the exclusive British-built school, is close to The Villa although only students, parents and invited guests may go inside, but if you’re youthful and trim enough to fit into the school uniform that might get you in too!

The area’s biggest draw, though, is Pushkar, Hindu India’s most sacred city. Only 11km away, The Villa White House is an excellent base: close enough for a morning excursion to the seething markets and holy lake but far away enough to avoid being woken by the daily cacophony of religion at 5am when the bells, calls to prayer and holy songs make a mockery of double glazing.

Having exhausted myself with the delights of Ajmer, I spent most of my time in the garden, swinging on a cushioned chair or playing cards and watching Hindi films with the owner’s 13-year-old daughter. Every evening, Mr Malhotra’s ducks busily quacked their way across the lawn, budgies squawked in the aviary and the homestay’s resident tortoise did, um, not a lot really. The (very) distant rumble and toot of trains was an atmospheric reminder of Ajmer’s more recent history as the location of one of the first places of contact between the British and the Mughals. The British set up camp here and it became the centre of one of the most important railroads established under the Raj, which was the main reason for my visit to Ajmer.

My great-great-grandfather, Bagot Blood, was the chief engineer of the Rajputana-Malwa Railway and I wanted to visit to find out more about what life was like for him and my great-grandmother who was born in the city. It was under these circumstances that the true advantage of the homestay became apparent. Mr Malhotra very kindly arranged for me to talk to someone who worked at the railway station shortly after partition, something that would have been extremely difficult to organise without the help of a local contact.

As Mr Malhotra says, the other great advantage of choosing a homestay is the “lack of professionalism”, which does not mean The Villa is poorly run. Far from it, this lack of professionalism is channelled into a warm and friendly atmosphere where you can lounge in one of the two gardens, watch a DVD whenever you like, cook in the kitchen alongside the staff or ask someone to prepare a meal for you. My stay at The Villa White House comfortably blended the benefits of hotel-standard facilities with the laid-back, welcoming and very helpful attitude of an Indian family.

My stay at The Villa White House was arranged by Mahindra Homestays, who have a number of homestays available throughout India.