A Farm Tour - In Search Of Hermit Lifestyle

I am not new to farm tours. Looking for farms to build a hermit of my own is something that I have been doing for more than a decade.

I have been visiting a farm since 2006. I bought a small piece of farmland near Anekal in Tamil Nadu, in the southern part of India - with the hope of building a cottage or an old age home there someday.

I moved to Kolkata in January 2017 and that plot is still lying vacant there with some teak plantation. Did the cottage dream fade? No, it just got magnified and became more real as time passed.

Now this is a different story and this began in July 2016.

I was in Bangalore then - when I first saw the advertisement. I called the developer to understand the nine yards of this project as I could not believe the prices and immediately my logical brain forewarned me something was probably wrong.

The person who interacted with me admitted at the very outset – nothing was available at the moment and they were working on a ten year vision.

I whispered to myself “No problem. I am perfectly alright with that” I did not have the required money then. So I am in no hurry. For that matter, I do not have the money even now.

I was dying to see the place and in November 2016, four months later, I finally saw the land.

The Story of Life 

I fell in love with the place the minute I saw it and let me tell you exactly why I liked it so much at the very first sight of it.

It was the horizon – the solitude and the quietness of the place that immediately caught on me. I was literally caught between what I saw and what was the potential of that place.

It is far shot of the exact same spot - Without the Story and Without Life

He was right. It really had nothing. The seller had a plan and the buyer possibly has a dream.

I realized that I have a huge task at hand now – to convince my family, particularly my mother why I wanted to invest in it.

Living Large In Tiny Houses.

I got the documents checked by a lawyer and also online, went ahead and booked the plot. For the time being I told my mother that I was just booking, not really buying because I did not have the money to close the deal

Guess what.

The developer had EMI option with zero interest and he was able to offer this only because this layout was being sold in phases.

Green Everywhere

I have always felt extremely guilty of my moving to Bangalore for better prospects and returning home after 15 years. I have lot of respect for people who stayed back, wanting to do something out of this city, in their own way by making their livelihood, right here, right now unlike us who chose the easy option.

I respect that lady, who is selling cotton Sarees in train, or the house wife who makes dozens of rotis every evening or the young man who is trying to sell properties or that recent graduate who coaches other students while developing his YouTube channel for income.

On a sunny Sunday, last month, I went to see the same place again and this time with a self-drawn pencil sketch of my cottage plan, my laptop and few images.

Hibuscus -  Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air - Thomas Gray

The security person of the layout was a local resident and spoke high and great of the place as he showed us around. He assured us a dozen times that this place is safe.

My mother went there for the first time. She was just not interested in this investment and I could not persuade to take her earlier to see the place. However on our way back, she was kind of okay, though she thought the place was too far – which means she slowly began to share my vision.

There were onions, lady’s finger, brinjal planted in the layout and drumsticks, bananas hung low in the trees on both sides of the road that we walked.

Can You Spot The Brinjal?

The new status symbol is definitely not money – It is time and it is legacy

The simplicity in routine, a lifestyle that has negligible carbon foot print and an example for others to follow for their own well-being are triggers for me to proceed with this project – A farm tour turned to farm house plan

The Onions - All Scattered.

The costing that the developer chalked out for me after roughly three hours discussion - blew me again. Where the hell will I get that kind of money to build the cottage?

Building Technology can shorten construction time but I need to study its impact on cost. I have been watching YouTubes and reading Quora to understand the difference between RCC and AAC. I understand GFRP reduces cost by 40%.

Farm tours humbles me – literally helps me soul search.

Follow my next blog to check if the cottage dream materializes.

Noticed this as we walked on the road - Pumpkin Plant