Nobody told me If I could do both farming and work. So I tried it.

Once I got into farming, I've realized that you've given birth to a new baby and this baby will never grow up.

This baby will be with you like a baby forever.

While I was working in Google, I developed an interest for farming which started as an interest which became a hobby which became a passion which became a livelihood which has become a economic activity for me.

Even though my wife was a homemaker but she was working more than me because she was raising her kids and uh and my daughter uh was an international bminton player.

Her uh international ranking was 88 and she was playing during the Sindu Sina days.

Her name is Rashma Karthik.

So she used to travel with them.

They had a very busy training schedule.

She used to take them to training, shift them, travel to different cities and all that.

When kids grow up, when they could start managing things themselves, I think she had a lot of times and she was very intrigued the fact that I started attending farming workshops, going to volunteer farms and all. She was very curious and kept irritating me saying why are you doing this even by remotely if you think I'm going to join hands with you count me out of it.

My parents did that and I remember that and I don't want to be a farmer any longer and I left that life and I want to not get back into it. But then I just told her that hey just for this particular program this is happening in Oruroville we are volunteering in one of the farms. So just for this program just come if you don't like it just leave.

Uh she finally I'm convinced her to come and then we stayed in the farm for 7 days.

She kind of started liking it and then suddenly one fine day it dawned on me that uh we had bought a piece of land way back in 2004 purely on investment purposes.

That time uh it was almost 50 lakhs for an acre and a half land. Then I was talking to my wife I said that hey we have our own piece of land uh which we have bought so why don't we do something out here and that thought happened in 2014 2015.

In the meantime, I was very inspired, very motivated by a lot of folks who had already set up farms and things like that.

So I used to visit them do a lot of voluntary work and then few of them I got really inspired how they went about doing it and that's how I started.

You should take that it gives an authentic look.

There's a saying uh in India very popular saying they say that you can't choose land land chooses you.

It's so very true that uh that I have this good fortune of mother earth out here having chosen to have me here as its resident as its tenant for however long I live here.

And it's so amazing. You have this pristine view.

Whenever you get tired of farming, you can come sit under this tree and an amazing view of the Banerata forest.

There's a beautiful western garts which flows here. That's the bille forest.

Here we have the bei falls which is very close by. And right in midst of the forest we have this good fortune of the land having chosen me uh to do farming.

We are a do it ourselves project.

We don't outsource anything to everybody and all the materials what we used is all indigenous right the walls which we have built it was all from the soil from the land the thatch which you see the roof it's again from the all the grass which is grown around the ke which is the coconut leaves is all the coconut leaves around this place right so if you look at that it is very cheap it's almost negligible I would say a conventional building if it costs some 3,000 rupees a square ft you can probably get this at around 300 400 rupees a square ft.

And then once we kind of moved in there then my kids said hey we are our career all uh taking off now so thank you for everything but uh all the best with your farm and your farming life. So me and my wife were looking at each other said hey we developed this farm we built this farmhouse our kids are not going to be there.

So eventually my wife also deserted.

She said I'll come and see you once in a while but I had to be sorry be where my kids are. In between a lot of people used to come and stay in the farmhouse just to enjoy the farm and the farm environment and some of them used to say hey I can't stay here for free.

I want to pay you and all that. So I think uh when co happened in 2020 we stayed in the farm for almost 2 and a half 3 years.

My kids also moved into the farm.

So as a family we stayed and we understood farming farm life in that co time.

So my wife uh became a professional cook during that time.

I became a professional farmer. I could do everything of farming. She knows how to take care of animals like farm animals, chicken.

So we ran this entire farm, one and a half acre farm with all these plants, all these animals all by ourselves.

I is opposite to me. I like that noisy, that market style, that rush, the traffic.

I love that. So I want both.

You tell mix and match. Now the whole day I'm here and then I go there.

So I get both together on one day.

personal and uh profession is going hand in hand.

When profession is finished, I go back to my personal and that is over.

I come back here. I want to be physically active.

Physically and mentally I want to be active. So that happens both the ways.

Any situation you should know how to deal.

That is what life is. Not to have luxury, not to have people surrounding.

If nobody's there, you should do all alone by yourself.

any job that's what I wanted he I wanted him to have a street smart characters within you if that is there no what else you want in life you can go anywhere and survive since I was a homemaker my job is to only take care of my family that's it so whatever I could do I I did my best so he had the dream to do a farm so my job is to only support that was framed in my brain I was very obedient to my family.

That that obediency I had in my frame.

Whatever I do, it should help my family.

That's it. Nothing else. I'm a very blank person.

Whatever you want, I will do it.

Whatever comes through my I don't know.

I'm like salt.

I'm like salt.

I don't think too much. I don't plan too much.

What is the use of thinking and planning?

See recently my dad if was uh replaced he was so happy he he showed that uh that lung capacity machine is there no so whenever you blow the blue ball jumps up he told see ma in ICO I went he see this one if I blow it'll go and then my doctor told me to do my feet like this I told aa now you are recovered now you should you very you should be very conscious that about yourself not to disturb your mind not to overexite yourself thinking that I'm fine.

He was so excited. Acha chal now I can walk.

Today operation is done.

He thinks tomorrow he can walk. He told now my he just showed me like this.

My life is going to be fine. See my life is going to change now. He was 86 years.

I'm going to remove all this teeth.

I'm going to put new teeth. I'm going to walk.

I'm going to change myself.

See my change. Life will be different.

We just missed him after 2 days.

So all that is there in my brain now.

So all that now I always see.

I don't miss my parents. Now I s I see through guest I treat them I serve them as my parents.

I'm becoming very emotional but this is a fact.

I still think my parents are still there with me.

I've not missed them.

Maybe he's not there physically.

Uh but he's there.

So conventional people look at revenue.

I look at expense.

Conventional people look at business separately.

Life differently. For me, life and business is the same. So if my life is the business, what is in my control is my expense.

Revenue will happen or not happen, it's not in my control.

I have set up a farm and do a farming life is to make sure my expenses become zero.

And whatever little needs I have, it comes from the farm almost free of cost.

We have 10 cows. I don't sell milk.

I make ghee. This ghee liter 2,000.

Dust liter 25,000.

Beast leader 50,000 rupees goa go mutra from the cows we make go arka out of it you sell get it on Amazon at 100 rupees I make 20,000 rupees out of that then I make another 20,000 rupees by generating power and giving to the grid my staff salary all put together is 80,000 I generate on a monthly basis 1.2 two lakhs without getting customers in.

So my free so as you can see there are two farms and both has sufficient infrastructure and the entire farm right from the capital investment of buying land setting up this infrastructure doing everything operationally we are making money but that's through the income but to set up this capital investment everything has happened through my savings and investments which have been done and mutual funds stocks and FPS over the last uh 25 30 years of my life.

So one 20% I put in all these financial instruments at least 20% of my overall revenue I'm I'm investing in community building because the more community becomes good farmers here more we can have the power of collective right let's say if I'm growing 100 kilos of tomato I can only sell 100 kilos of tomato if I'm selling 1,000 kilos of tomato through my farmer friends I can make pickles out of it and sell and share the profit with everybody That's making more money.

That's the effect of compounding and building a community. And that's what we investing in the weekend school.

Helping in building community, making sure the youth understand the right farming practices and and also taking care of the health needs of all this.

What is the goal of living?

Goal of living is to live without any irritations, without any limitations.

Just leave freespirited, right?

And for you to live freespirited, this is your asset.

You came with this.

Some development happened.

Some muscle mass developed. You became big and then eventually this all start dying dying and one day you will get buried or burnt or what.

So you can't have anything more than this.

You have to focus on this. So meaning if you want to live happily, you have to be maniacally selfish about yourself.

So I have grown up kids, what's the best gift I can give to them? Is the best version of myself?

Meaning if I'm healthy, if I'm happy, my kids will be very pleased.

No, because they don't have the guilt of taking care of me. And why you need to take care of your health is because of gratitude.

Because it's these organs are yours, his limbs are yours, his hand is yours, his mind is yours, his heart is yours.

If you don't take care of it, who will take care of it? So how do you take care of it?

You can't sit and go gym 24 hours a day.

You can't be doing diet 24 hours a day.

The purpose this nature has given you all this is to make sure that you're living right.

Your the process of you to live and do your work, it becomes very hands-on.

uh once I got into farming it's a lot of difference I find myself that routine is that wake up early in the morning and then go to sleep very early uh you are in as part of the circadian cycle right so you basically see sunrise and you see sunset and you try to get some things done before that and so that becomes part of you and that becomes uh second nature to you that becomes you and once you get into that cycle you see a massive productivity gain in you and I see that has transformed Like for instance, I can't sleep beyond 5:30 in the morning.

Come watch me. It's a body cycle, body clock.

I 5:30 I wake up and the and I don't wake up like huh, I need to get up.

I wake up with a spring. I jump out of the bed and as soon as I jump out of the bed, I get out cuz body thing is that first you need to be see the cows, you need to water the plants, you need to leave the chicken out, you need to take the dogs out for a walk. So it becomes high act high energy activity from 5:30 onwards and then you're doing that activity till 8:39 and then you get hungry by 9:30 you have some meal you normally have ragi we grow ragi so you make uh porridge out of ragi it's called ragi ganji or you have uh old rice which you ferment and you put pickle and buttermilk to that and drink because buttermilk is your own buttermilk it's from your own cows it can't get better than that so you drink that and then you feel uh good and then you go back to work either you do some internet work for because I work at Google I do that or I go to work I go use a EV electric vehicle to go to work if I'm in Google I eat something what is in Google office in my I'm here if I'm at the farm I do some work or internet work uh eat something whatever is grown locally very simple uh but nutritious food uh by 2:30 you take a power nap then you wake up you do either some farm work or work on the internet or do alternately both because you have internet around the farm.

You can take your phone and do your Google work and you also do farming work and you can be on calls and you continue to farm and then you finish that you multitask with both the work and then evening you have some snack and then 6:37 you're done your meal is done uh your last meal is maybe around 5:45 6 and that's it and then you do some internet work you do some planning for the next day by 9:30 you're slept and then by 4:30 you're up again like I said I started working on when I was 18 years old.

I never stopped working.

I'll only stop working when when I'm a dead body.

As far as you have a running mind, you're constantly doing something.

Something for fun. Some some things will get money.

Some things you will you will be.

So that is what it is, right? So at the end of the day, life is very simple.

Life is very simple. Make sure that money that comes your way, you put it to good use.

So that that takes care of you.

Meaning how will you put it to good use?

Only if you have money. If you blow all the money that comes to you, you will not be able to put to good use.

So all the good things in life is free or cheap and underestimated.

So if once you that realization comes then you p you have never issue of money and then if you make the money compound by putting in small instruments and and then all this SIP. So I can see boss so you're talking to me at the right stage of my life right I'm at 58 years old I've seen all those investments fruify and all those whatever passion interest and all that will be will remain on a book if I didn't have the capital so for you to invest you have to focus you have to have cash flow now a lot of people leave job to set up farm I don't know why I have never understood that everybody needs to do two jobs. So I'm doing job.

I've never left a day in at work.

I enjoy doing my work. I'm very indebted to my work and I'm grateful for that work because it's it's helping me pursue my passion.

And this passion is helping me live better, be more productive so that I can contribute more to my work.

And then I made sure this passion doesn't suck.

Everybody's passion sucks in people play golf.

Golf People go on adventure tours.

I do farming.