Rain. It drips from every leaf, pours down every wall, rattles on the rooftops. Rivulets weave through the forest floor, gaining momentum as they descend from the mountain plateau and combine to form seasonal rivers that tumble over rocks, becoming the myriad of thundering waterfalls that attract thousands of Indian tourists to the Western Ghats every year. In the UK, we love to complain about the rain, but in India the arrival of the monsoon is celebrated. ‘This is my favourite kind of weather,’ a grinning member of the retreat team says, as he invites me beneath his huge umbrella and shows me to my villa.
“A project to restore the balance of nature became about restoring the balance in people’s bodies and lives too”