Life on the slow track

Venkat Iyer gave up a high-paying IT job to become a farmer. Today, he's happier, but Mansi Taneja finds out it was not an easy transition

From a stressful life to a carefree one, from the city's concrete jungle to nature's open spaces, from zipping around in cars to taking public transport, and from pollution to clean air, Moong Over Microchips is the journey of an IT professional who dared to leave behind the trappings of a plush city life, including a six figure salary, and found his calling as a farmer in a peaceful rural setting.

The book traces Venkat Iyer's dilemma of leaving his job in India's financial capital after 15 stressful years of being bogged down by the hustle-bustle of the city and his professional life. "I felt alienated by this rat race and also felt isolated in my attempt to give it all up and try to eke out a simple existence by farming," he writes.

Iyer says he seemed to have everything he desired except the time to enjoy it, and this necessitated a change in lifestyle. Calling his decision 'reverse migration', he realised that many want to take the leap but were prevented by insecurity and fear – not to forget money, which plays a major role in such decisions.

He had bought a few acres of land in Peth village in Dahanu taluk, Palghar district near Mumbai, and settled down there to practice organic farming. Fifteen years on, Iyer not only has the satisfaction of growing his own vegetables but also sustains himself with what he makes by selling the produce. This happy outcome comes at the end of many hurdles – corruption, lack of knowledge of farming, and shortage of labour, among other issues.

One often hears people talk of taking such a drastic shift, but Iyer is one of the few who took the plunge and even managed to make it work. No doubt, this required advanced planning, especially on the financial front, which Iyer did very meticulously.

On the plus side, the author did not have any major responsibilities – his parents were independent and did not stay with him; he did not have children and his wife landed a job with a newspaper, which helped during the transition. "I was not looking for retirement but for a new lifestyle," says Iyer.

The techie-turned-farmer does a fair job painting a balanced picture of life in a village – the lack of 24x7 electricity, TV, Internet, the broken roads, the ramshackle public transport and lack of healthcare facilities, weighed against the beauty of nature, the calm ponds, birds chirping at dawn, and a relaxed pace of life with many creatures (and insects) around. "There is a calming effect when one does not have to do anything in particular. It is almost akin to meditation. Something in the city made people restless, one had to do something to pass the time."

Though Iyer was lucky to make the shift from city to village and stuck to it for the past 15 years, it's the opposite that's more common – people migrating from villages to cities in search of better opportunities unable to cope with the increasing challenge of farming in India such as the lack of an assured income and high debt, which has forced farmers to commit suicide.

The book ends with Iyer's concern that even basic food items might need to be imported in the future as the younger generation in villages is not keen to continue with farming. "I cannot imagine what will happen to our food security in a few years. We will probably have to start importing from abroad as fresh food would have vanished from this country. Or will we let contract farming take over? Is this where we are headed? A scary thought."

Moong over Microchips: Adventures of a Techie-turned-Farmer
Venkat Iyer
Penguin/Viking
237 Pages; Rs 499