Mumbai Household Strikes to Raigad for Farming, Homeschooling & a Easier Life

The reporting and interviews for this story have been performed in August 2024.

Have you ever ever thought-about stepping away from the frenetic tempo of city life and immersing your self within the tranquil simplicity of your ancestral heritage? Does the considered dwelling minimally, as your ancestors did, enchantment to you? Meet a household who’s made this imaginative and prescient their lifestyle.

At 51, former mannequin and mechanical engineer Rajesh Mate has turned to farming, guiding his household to a life on their ancestral land in Raigad. He now lives on a farm together with his spouse Smita and two daughters, Dhruvi and Diti, making farming the center of their each day lives.

When requested why a well-off household from Mumbai’s Dadar would select Raigad, Rajesh explains, “We wished to go away behind Mumbai’s high-speed, consumer-oriented existence and reconnect with the easier, conventional life our ancestors led.”

The shift to Raigad has allowed the Mate household toalign their instructional and eco-values via permaculture, leading to a extra related and comfortable household. Discover out why they’re extra able to face challenges now, and the way shifting from a prestigious Mumbai faculty to a homeschooling setup in Raigad has led to surprising advantages for 12-year-old Diti.

‘You’ll be able to’t defy nature’

The will to reconnect together with his roots took maintain of Rajesh in 2017, after attending a five-dayPanchagavyacourse in Nashik. This course, emphasising the usage of cow milk, dung, urine,ghee(clarified butter), and curd, highlighted Ayurveda’s holistic therapeutic strategies for treating quite a few well being situations.

Rajesh’s enthusiasm forPanchagavyamerchandise grew after the course, main him to strive making them on his personal. He shares that after making use of thePanchagavyamerchandise, his calf and again ache from driving lengthy distances was relieved. He figured, “If these merchandise labored for me, they may work for others too.”

He additionally began utilizing a cowghee-based serum for physique aches, fevers, ENT issues, and bruises. He says he utilized the serum to his stomach button, adhering to the idea that “the stomach button is related to all 72 nerves of the physique,” a way impressed by ancestral practices.

After discovering the quite a few advantages ofcow-derived merchandise, Rajesh was decided to deepen his information of farming and agriculture, so he took a permaculture design course in Bengaluru.

Later, he thought, “To place my information into observe, I want to maneuver to Raigad.” He began by farming part-time on weekends, commuting from Mumbai to Raigad on Fridays and returning on Sundays. It quickly turned clear {that a} full transfer to Raigad was the very best path ahead.

To Rajesh, permaculture is all about effectively utilizing the assets in your quick setting. He realized farming fundamentals from his neighbours and found that adhering to nature’s rules is important. “You’ll be able to’t defy nature,” he says, noting that nature follows its personal methods.

He began with conventional fertilisers like cow dung and cow urine, that are rooted in historical agricultural practices. As he transitioned to permaculture, he began educating others about his strategies after they noticed his farm thriving with out pesticides. “That ishow our ancestors farmed,” he explains.

He stresses that soil wants mulching to stop publicity and evaporation, enabling microorganisms to heal the soil after pesticide harm.

From city hustle to rural tranquillity

Rajesh shares that his transfer from Mumbai to Raigad, alongside together with his household, stemmed from a want to embrace aminimalist life-stylefree from allopathic medicines. However how did Rajesh persuade his household to go away their life in Mumbai and relocate to Raigad? “It wasn’t a simple resolution,” he confesses.

His spouse, Smita, was shortly on board, however convincing his daughters, Dhruvi and Diti, was difficult. The household agreed to maneuver to Raigad after Dhruvi accomplished her Class 12 exams at Podar Faculty in Mumbai. In the meantime, Diti, who was in Class 5, transferred to a faculty that supplied distant studying.

After months of cautious consideration, and as soon as everybody was snug with the choice, the household lastly realised that it was a win-win state of affairs for all of them and moved from their Dadar residence to their Raigad residence in 2022.

“Relocating to a rural space isn’t with out its difficulties. Discovering a community was a problem at first,” Rajesh admits. He mentions that there have been occasions he needed to take his household to the Raigad market to discover a sign.

Through the day, Rajesh oversees his farm and manages his enterprise in central medical fuel pipeline methods, which includes supplying respiration gases to ICU items in hospitals. In the meantime, Smita handles the executive points of the enterprise.

“I personal three properties: one in Dadar, one in Kalwa, and one in Thane. At a sure level, I started to query, ‘Why am I shopping for these flats and investing in gold? If I’m spending cash merely for extra facilities, when will I ever use them?’” he confesses.

He provides that spending a big quantity on quick holidays, as many rich people do, solely to return to a metropolis with polluted air and water, doesn’t make sense to him. He argues that true well being relies on oxygen, which cash can’t purchase. He describes what is usually known as “well being care” as “illness care”, believing that true well-being comes from being in tune with nature.

The day begins for the household at 5 am with a meditation session that lasts till 5.30 am. They then carry outAgnihotra— a Vedic ritual the place they gentle a copper pot full of fireplace, supplygheeand rice to the solar, and chantmantras(sacred phrases). Dhruvi and Diti are inclined to the birds, canines, and cats on the farm and assist with farming duties. Following the pure cycle, they fall asleep as quickly as darkness units in, round 8 pm.

Nature as classroom

Dhruvi, now 19, has accomplished programs in management in biodiversity conservation and permaculture design, following in her father’s footsteps. In the meantime, 12-year-old Diti is at present homeschooled. “Most mother and father want standard education for his or her kids,” Rajesh acknowledges. “Nonetheless, since we’re embracing a life-style deeply related with nature, I imagine nature ought to be Diti’s trainer.” He hopes that in Raigad, nature will function Diti’s classroom.

“I don’t need my daughter to simply acquire levels,” he says, referencing the traditional Gurukul system the place college students realized a broad spectrum of topics via hands-on expertise. “I introduced this idea to my household, and so they have been on board,” he provides with a smile.

Rajesh proudly shares that Diti can grasp difficultasanas(train postures) and even establish colors and browse with a blindfold on. He dubs this observe “Mind Gymnasium”, one thing that retains her senses alert and refined.

Right now, each daughters’ each day actions vary from doing fieldwork to creating pure mud homes. When requested about how his daughters thrived with out conventional education, Rajesh defined that adapting to their new life-style was straightforward as soon as they dedicated to it. He notes that many individuals round him, who wished to do the identical for his or her kids, usually inquire about how he managed to influence his youngsters to embrace nature as their classroom.

Dhruvi and Diti discover themselves happier now, immersed within the firm of cows. The household’s preliminary 4 cattle have grown to 42. They not solely keep a farm with over 25 wild vegetation — corresponding toaakur(Acrostichum aureum), spiny gourd,bharangi(Clerodendrum Serratum), air potatoes, elephant foot yam, and Indian spherical gourd — but additionally educate sustainability practices in Raigad.

Their model,Gavya, gives a spread of merchandise created from cow dung and varied vegetation, together with jewelry, ornamental gadgets, hair oils, balms, natural cures, and private care merchandise like eye and nasal drops and toothpowder.

The household’s permaculture method mirrors nature’s personal methods. “We intention for concord amongst completely different pure parts,” Dhruvi says. She factors out that areas thought-about wastelands are sometimes merely misused by people. Slightly than eradicating a tree that doesn’t match their farm’s wants, she adapts the encompassing land to suit it. “Permaculture gives natural options for utilising these ‘wasted’ lands.”

Their farm consists of biodynamic domes for poultry, agronets, and fishing nets for regulating temperature and defending crops. “Our system permits hen compost to show into fertiliser, making a self-sustaining ecosystem,” he provides.

Dhruvi stresses thatpermaculture’s ethics— earth care, individuals care, and fair proportion — apply not solely to land use but additionally to on a regular basis practices.

Designed to comply with the solar’s arc, the farm makes optimum use of daylight. The land’s slopes enable for efficient rainwater harvesting via trenches.

What’s the key ritual that brings the household collectively? Rajesh says: Household time! Earlier than handing over every evening, the household comes collectively to recount their day. “Diti at all times has so much to share,” Rajesh admits. “Papa, the cow is pregnant.Papa, I performed with the cats.”

Based on Dhruvi, her household is extra united now, and so they can develop versatile options for his or her farm in addition to their private lives. “Transferring again to your native place isn’t possible for everybody,” she admits. But, individuals can nonetheless make an impression via small actions, corresponding to taking public transport extra usually or reducing down on quick style. “In Mumbai, we made some extent of utilizing all the pieces we introduced residence a number of occasions, together with plastic luggage,” Dhruvi recollects. She credit her household’s assist as the important thing think about easing their transition.

In her view, persistence is essential for sustaining earth-work. “Day-after-day on the farm brings surprising challenges,” she reveals. This actuality has led the household to stay devoted to discovering options for points corresponding to treating injured animals or fixing their vegetable backyard’s water system. “Coping with these each day challenges has embedded persistence into our each day lives,” Dhruvi acknowledges.

Is the household feeling remoted away from their Mumbai circle? “Completely not!” Rajesh assures. He explains that they keep well-connected with their family and friends. “We incessantly have visitors coming to see how we stay sustainably, together with those that wish to replicate our life-style however have their very own hurdles. We gladly present them round.”