At Rs 6,000 for a three-day package, Our Native Village, a self-sustained eco resort with windmill-generated electricity, will let you return to a time when there was no technology. The Viswanathans went for rides in bullock carts, slept on low beds in minimalist rooms with just an earthen jug and wall painting for company, wandered with the owner, 44-year-old Ram Kumar, to learn how they recycled wastewater and used aquatic plants to keep the pool clean. “We realised how sensitive nature is but we also had a lot of fun. I never imagined I would play gilli danda at this age,” says Viswanthan. The year-old resort has already had 100 families, apart from busloads of businessmen, enjoying Kumar’s tech-less world.

When you meet Monimita Sarkar, she will reels off details about 50 varieties of birds and over 2,000 types of plants, having you wonder if she is an ornithologist or a botanist. But the 45-year-old is the MD of KW Conferences — and her nature lessons are all thanks to three days at Camp Potter’s Hill, an eco-lodge in Shimla. Set up in 2004, this is the first government-recognised ecotourism project in Himachal Pradesh and has already had 1,000 families spending weekends watching birds and trekking on forest trails. “We chose the place for the promise of a different experience,” says Sarkar, who took her colleagues along for a nature fix. Dr Anil Bradoo, another convert to ecotourism, agrees: “We learnt how to sustain the fragile ecosystem.” This eco venture is the brainchild of 20-something Vibha Butail, who wanted to set up lodges in the forest and teach ecology to tourists. A three-night-four-day stay costs Rs 9,999 per couple.