In June 2009, our family started a new phase of life. We started working on 12 acres of rocky wasteland in Seoni district, MP, to develop it into an organic farm. Not only was the land rocky and uncultivatable, there was no water or electricity available. The nearest village was over 2 Km away. Our friends who saw the land in its initial stages barely tried to camouflage their scepticism... and it took our teenaged son to verbalise this openly and rather bluntly - "Yeh jagah dekhke toh nahi lagta iss mein kabhi kuch ugega!"
And Sudarshan, always the optimist, replied, "Ugega. Let us try." And so, 'Udayan' was born.
Today, 2.5 years down the line, Udayan has truly been a new beginning- for us, for the piece of land lying waste all these years, and for the local families who live on it and whom it provides for.
In this blog, we plan to document the story of Udayan, right from its bleak beginnings to what could prospectively be a bright future - for the farm, and the people whose lives are entwined with Udayan in some way or the other...
Hi.
ReplyDeleteWonderful start.
Want to see the new farm manager - onsite. Been hearing those jugaads etc, hope to read them as you write.
wishing you, suchi and the kids the very best.
ani, nikhil and pakhi