Isha Singal got a ping at 6:47 PM on her laptop. She had been pulled into another urgent deployment at Amazon, where she worked as a Senior Program Manager. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, but her mind wandered back to her kids at home. Stuck at work, she decided to order in ready-to-eat meals from the nearest supermarket…again…and it would come wrapped in plastic, sprayed with chemicals she couldn't pronounce…again.
At 38, Isha Singal had mastered the art of managing codes, people, and deadlines. But she couldn't manage the gnawing worry: “Is the food I give my children, my family, safe and healthy?”
The Barren Beginning
That question led her to buy a farm in 2024, three and a half acres of barren land, sixty-five kilometers from Bengaluru on Kanakpura Road. But, the land was vacant, and she knew nothing about farming. Isha, used to orchestrating complex software deployments, now stood before a stretch of soil she didn’t yet understand-what color should it be? Should it be soft or hard? How much moisture will it need to grow anything here? All these questions would puzzle her.
In search of direction, she approached a commercial farm consultant, someone who drafted plans to maximize yield. “You’ll need different chemicals for mango, different for guava,” he told her. The advice left her uneasy.
The contradiction was stark: a technology professional trying to turn back time and seek ancient wisdom, a city dweller dreaming of self-sufficiency, a mother wanting to protect her children from chemicals.
Search for Answers
In April 2024, after being introduced to the idea of natural farming by Binay Kumar, Head of Permaculture at the Art of Living, Bangalore, through his popular video "Man on the Bus," Isha walked into the reception of the ashram. Her confidence wavered, with what felt like walking into an uncharted territory, which gave her butterflies in the stomach.
Transformation Begins
The initial weeks of the workshop were filled with doubts. Neighbours and well-wishers warned that without chemicals and fertilizers, the plants wouldn't survive. "The growth with cow dung manure is not that great, and you will have to wait for a very long time," they cautioned.
However, what struck her was, permaculture wasn't just about growing plants, it was about designing a living ecosystem. The farm began to mirror the structured thinking she applied at work, but with a deeper purpose.
"They helped us to understand how the farm design should be," now, a more confident Isha explained, "so, we have designed our farm accordingly. It's been divided into zones, as it is in permaculture." Each of the five zones serves a distinct purpose, through cross-pollination and thoughtful spacing, they support fruit trees, exotic varieties, vegetables, grains, and a future farmhouse.
In a matter of a few months, the empty land transformed into a carefully designed ecosystem. Six hundred trees found their place in an intentionally curated space to maximize the benefit of each of them.. Mangoes, coconuts, and guavas made up the core plantation. Bananas brought their tropical gifts. Orange, mausambi, lychee, and water apple brought diversity. Then came the exotic varieties that spoke to her adventurous spirit: rambutan, olives, dragon fruit, sundrop, seventy varieties in total.
The spaces between trees were used to grow bottle guard, ridge guard, lady finger, chilly, tomato, and turmeric. “Last year, we sowed groundnuts just as an experiment, and when we pulled them out, I couldn’t believe it. The baskets kept filling up. Fifteen times more than we expected. We pressed them into oil and saved the seeds for the next season.”
Two and a half years later, the discovery was profound: the ecosystem grew in perfect balance. Birds nested in the trees, their songs replacing the silence of deforestation. They feasted on pests, naturally controlling what chemicals once fought. Snakes found their place, too, keeping the rat population in check.
"We are getting a very good yield. We don't see a lot of pest attacks," Isha reflected, her voice carrying the wonder of someone who had witnessed nature's intelligence firsthand. “What I discovered was you don't need chemicals to maintain a thriving ecosystem, built from nothing."
"Rather than putting chemicals, we put green manure made from Navdhanya, nine different varieties of seeds which increase soil fertility, and cow dung for soil fertilization, techniques I learnt in Permaculture," she explained.
Weekend Sanctuary
Isha spends her weekends on the farms, tending to them, talking to them, soaking in their presence. Her children have taken after her. They have built a beautiful bond with the trees and creatures on the farm. You can find them helping their mother harvest the lady fingers and bottle gourds. They watch birds eat the guava yield without complaint, understanding instinctively that sharing with nature is never a loss.
A Lifestyle Makeover
The family's relationship with food evolved subtly but profoundly. While they couldn't move 100% away from external produce, they were more aware now. They learned which vegetables to avoid buying frequently, for example, grapes heavily sprayed with pesticides, and leafy greens vulnerable to chemical treatments.
Isha's journey from Amazon's algorithms to ancient agricultural wisdom reveals a truth that resonates beyond her three and a half acres: sometimes the most profound transformations begin with the simplest questions, asked by a mother's heart.
