Caught in the corporate rut, Sudhakar was looking for a way out, a gateway to a simpler way of living that also resonated with Noushadya.
Their company could not have offered that, but the people raising funds for sustainable solutions through the firm could.
“I wanted to be sure that I wanted to make the switch and to confirm this, we both decided to volunteer at an organic farm in Auroville,” Noushadya says.
“It wasn’t just about tending to a farm, but also about how one builds an entire lifestyle to become environmentally conscious in the long run,” she says.
The land sits adjacent to a wildlife reserve and was frequented by all kinds of animals at the time.
They began with fencing up the land to keep animals away and invested about Rs 2 lakh in a solar fencing model.
On a part of the acreage, they experimented with a layering model where banana was planted under the coconut trees, followed by ginger and turmeric under the banana.
A separate kitchen garden was set up from where they source 80 percent of the total household food today. Once a year, paddy and a few pulses are harvested for consumption.
The coconuts are manufactured into cold-pressed oil, while wildly growing holy basil and curry leaves are powdered and sold as condiments.
The couple has 10 native cows on the farm that are a hyperlocal breed called thenpandi. “We source our milk for consumption from them and all excess is made into curd and sold locally. We also tame chickens, whose eggs are utilised similarly,” she says.
The grey water that feeds the papaya and banana circles on the farm comes from the couple’s house of residence, which they built amidst the greenscape itself.
The entire structure is built from mud, cow dung, and lime, and the kitchen was built with sundried bricks.
The entire building was set up by the cob method of construction, which uses manual labour to knead the materials into the structure.