Darjeeling

A pictorial journey — from a tea planter's bungalow to luxury boutique hotel — two-and-a half-decade long.

The working tea estate produces some of the finest tea in the country. Glenburn is sprawled across 1,600 acres, of which 780 acres is tea plantation and the rest is villages and reserved forestCourtesy Glenburn Tea Estate It was restored in 2002 (left) conserving the style of a colonial planters’ bungalow, and retains the look two decades later (right) down to the fresh flowers and rattan chairsCourtesy Glenburn Tea Estate, Karo Christine Kumar