Raison: Kullu Manali’s Well-Kept Secret.
Away from the hill station crowds, Raison Kullu (or Raison Manali) is a secret Bollywood haunt waiting to be discovered! As the bus jerks to a stop on the Manali highway and the driver yells Raison Kullu, I pick up my sleepy self and alight. On my left, a pebbly path winds uphill, away from the paved highway. The absence of a road is a sign that there won’t be many visitors here. I climb past small village clusters, with red, purple and blue flowers intermittently dotting the edge of the path. The River Beas babbles harmoniously in the silence of the mountains. On a plateau in the middle of this wilderness in Raison Kullu, I am welcomed into an 83-year-old bungalow built during the British era. Surrounding me are apple orchards and kiwi plantations. The trees have shed all their leaves in the cold December weather, but their bare branches lend a rustic charm. The apple barons of the region have opened up this precious inheritance to travellers seeking a taste of royalty without …