A pahadi family, rooted in these hills
Who we are
We're the Negis — and Bishts too — a Kumaoni Rajput family that has called this corner of the hills home for as far back as anyone remembers. Our name, our food, the festivals we keep and the open-door way we welcome people all come from right here.
Negi
/ ne·gi /नेगी
our family name — a Rajput surname from the Kumaon hills — and the name we've carried right here, generation after generation, for as long as the family remembers.
Bisht
/ bisht /बिष्ट
another name of these hills — another common Kumaoni Rajput title here — and, as it happens, Roma's own, though her roots lie in Haridwar. A home or two carries Rawat, too.
Our people
Our place
Our tribe
What we speak
The language of the house
Kumaoni
/ koo·maa·oo·nee /कुमाऊँनी
our mother tongue — the hill dialect of Kumaon — what the family speaks among itself, carried in folk songs and slipped into every warm welcome.
But more than any one language, we try to speak the way these hills do — soft, welcoming and positive.
We speak
We understand a little
And — only half joking — fluent in
The current keepers
Who keeps Kunja Village Homestay today
Five generations have lived under this roof. These are the hands keeping it warm right now — the ones who'll greet you at the gate, cook your meals and look after you while you're here.
Generation over generation
One home, one terrace, five generations
Kunja Village Homestay isn't a property we acquired — it's a home that's been handed down for more than a hundred years. Five generations, and very likely six, have lived under the same roof, sat on the same terrace, and looked out at the same hills. We can put names and faces to the most recent of them; the earliest, we're still — lovingly — gathering.
- Firstgeneration
The forebears
Before our grandparents, an earlier Negi raised his family in this very house — Kunwar Singh's father, and, we believe, his father before him. More than a hundred years of us, under one roof. Their names and faces we're still gathering, in our own time.
Name to come
Names to come
- Secondgeneration
Grandparents
The ones who built and blessed the home we know — where our own memory begins.
- KS
Kunwar Singh Negi
Grandfather
- HN
Heera Negi
Grandmother
- Thirdgeneration
Parents, Uncle & Aunty
The generation that nurtured the home and kept its doors warm.
Puran Singh Negi
Father
Kamala Negi
Mother
- TS
Thakur Singh Negi
Uncle
- PN
Parvati Negi
Aunty
- Fourthgeneration
This generation
Caretakers of today, opening the home to friends and fellow travellers. The sisters are married now and carry other names — but this house is every bit as much theirs as ours. We're only its keepers, holding it for the next to come.
Manohar Negi
Owner & host
Roma Bisht
Owner & host
Neema Rana
Owner & co-host
Geeta Nagarkoti
Owner & co-host
Radha Bisht
Owner & co-host
Uma Bhandari
Owner & co-host
- AT
Anita Tilara
Owner & co-host
- Fifthgeneration
The next generation
The little ones who'll carry the homestay forward — same terrace, same hills. Two more will join the picture in time.
Vivaan Negi
The next gen
Avyaan Negi
The next gen
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