How does it feel living in a silo at Hay on Wye?

Every management guru you meet will tell you why we shouldn't be living in silos, and yet, they seem to be the hottest trending travel living arrangements all over the world. I'm happy to report, that having lived in one, literally, it was an unusual experience.

Hay on Wye in Wales is a typically beautiful English countryside, where except for one of the finest literature festivals, eponymously named the Hay Festival, little else happens, unless of course you're there to take in the near comatose calm of a quiet town. For 10 days a year, Hay on Wye becomes a place filled with the traffic of England, where thousands of people throng a field converted into large tents to host the best names in literature. It's when all the hotels are booked, all B&Bs overflowing with guests and when silos turn into living quarters. The countryside of Wales is a carpet of rolling, emerald green on which rest thousands of grazing sheep and cattle, interspersed with fields of wheat, barley and maize. And where there are crops there are silos (granaries), some of which have been converted into luxurious living spaces.

It takes some doing to get there. To begin with, when one's accommodation in an English countryside has a name with almost no vowels, you know you're on to something different. The Welsh won't bat an eyelid when you ask for directions to Cwmhir Court since it appears vowels are highly dispensable. And when the sight presents itself, you're not quite sure that this is the right choice of accommodation. It's rather dizzying to be living in a circular, corrugated cylinder for a week, in which once were stored grain and wheat.

But step inside and all doubts vanish. You realise that the silo actually gives you a high ceiling, a cosy bedroom, a bathroom to fit strictly one, a circular staircase that leads to a fairly spacious living area from where you can see miles and miles of green undulating fields speckled with woolly sheep who for some reason can spend the entire day staring back at you. The kitchen is efficiently equipped with everything you may need: a microwave, an oven and gas hob, toaster, washing machine... the works. It's an exercise in space management, one that people living in Mumbai's pigeon hole apartments would do well take note of.

The concept of living in silos converted into living spaces is fast catching on in the UK, the US and Europe. Arizona has a few converted silos, so does Utah and other agricultural belts of these countries. All of these are near design marvels. The basic premise is to divide the silo horizontally, so that there is a ground floor with a kitchenette a bedroom, a shower and washroom. The upper floor, linked by a spiral staircase, becomes the living area and is a tad more spacious.

And how does one deal with the corrugated steel that is the exterior of the silo? Frankly, you don't. The inside is reinforced with plaster, paint and concrete. The floors are parquet and not for a moment do you get the stifling feeling of being surrounded by ribbed sheets of steel. Windows are cut strategically to look out at the vast open spaces and the interiors are done in minimalistic (what else!) style that may even make you forget that you're living in a grain storage. But that defeats the purpose, doesn't it? So, to remind you time and again that you're living differently from the rest of the world, step out into the courtyards and look up at the tall barn-like structure that looks inhabitable from the outside but is hugely comfortable inside.