by Venkat Iyer
VENKAT IYER
MOONG OVER MICROCHIPS
Adventures of A Techie-Turned-Farmer
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
Preface
1. Where Am I Headed?
To Leave or Not to Leave
Changing Over
2. Search for an Alternative
First Interest in Farming
Working out the Finance
A Cinematic Encounter and the Final Plunge
3. Searching for Land
The Transition
A Different Journey
4. Land at Last
The Search Ends
My New Address
5. Early Lesson in Farming
The First Crop
Selling Moong
The Water Diviner
6. First Year at the Farm
Groundnut Harvest
First Anniversary
7. The Search for Rice
The Scent of Rice
System of Rice Intensification
8. The Present Scenario
A Day at the Farm
Recognition
9. Settling Down
Breaking from the Trap
Village Community
Shh . . . The Gods Are Coming
Spells and Curses
The Mahalaxmi Temple Fair
10. Of Kerosene, Groundnuts and Subsidies
Scams Here Too
Twinkle, Twinkle
Sarkari Troubles
Murder
Thefts
11. Doctor in the House
The Death of Moru Dada
12. Snakes, Owls and Other Animals
The Hissing Cobra
The Dreaded Event
Allahrakha
Hen Log
The Cats and Pepper
13. Village Economics and the Man Who Hates Banks
The Man Who Hates Banks
The Demon of Demonetization
14. Market Initiatives
Lessons in Supply Chain
The MOFCA Experience
15. Are You Happy?
What’s in the Future?
Illustrations
Footnote
8. The Present Scenario
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright
To Meena, without whose support and
encouragement none of this would have been possible,
and to my dear friend Dilip Samel, who would have
enjoyed reading this book if he was alive
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
—Max Ehrmann
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
—André Gide
There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.
—Benjamin Franklin
Preface
I quit my corporate job as a project manager with IBM in 2003, after working for fifteen years in the Information Technology (IT) industry. It was not a career change but a change in lifestyle that I was looking for. I was tired of the vicious rat race in the city, the pollution, the traffic and the chaos in everyday life. I was frustrated by the mechanical and insensitive city life and the blinkered or complete focus on earning more and more money.
I changed my life to become a farmer, which was unthinkable for me until a few years ago. It was not smooth sailing. I was a complete novice in this field, never having lived for even a single day in a village. It was a challenge to make the transition from the city to the village. Farming was a new skill that I had to learn from scratch, and unlike software or hardware there were no manuals or help buttons to guide me along. I had to learn the hard way by experimenting and trying out new things.
When I quit my job, a few friends at IBM wished to be in touch and stay updated about what was going on in my life. I started sending fortnightly email updates to them. What started as a small group soon grew to include relatives, acquaintances and more friends. I wrote to them in detail about how I was managing the transition and trying to break away from city life while learning different skills and a brand new profession. My narration always evoked sympathetic responses and stirred the emotions of my readers. Many of them were still in the corporate sector and deep within them, they had the desire to break away and do something more exciting.
In this era of globalization and a money economy, there are few who will give up the chase for big bucks. This is the time when hundreds are migrating from the villages to the cities looking for elusive jobs and secure incomes. I felt rather alienated by this rat race and isolated too in my attempt to give it all up and try and eke out a simple existence by farming. Some of my friends suggested that I should collate my experiences and make them into some sort of a book which people could read and enjoy. They were of the opinion that it would make for interesting reading and may prove to be an inspiration for many others who were on the threshold of such a ‘reverse’ migration.
At first I was extremely sceptical about this idea. I had never written more than a few words at a time, usually letters to my cousins as a child, or later, emails which were work related. A book was the last thing on my mind.
The driving force behind the book is my wife, Meena, who encouraged me and gave me the confidence to start writing down my experiences and feelings as I went about this transformation. During the monsoon in 2005, when I had some spare time as the work at the farm was not much, I decided to start writing.
I am thankful to Meena for having guided me in my first attempt to write a book. I would also like to acknowledge the tremendous encouragement from all my IBM colleagues and friends on the email list who inspired me to do this.
1
Where Am I Headed?
To Leave or Not to Leave
It was nearing six in the evening. I stared out of the blue tinted glass windows of my plush office at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, and watched the sun dip into the western sky. It was time to start the long journey back home through the rush hour traffic. Just as I was about to press the ‘Turn Off’ button on my IBM ThinkPad, Sriram, my senior colleague, tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was in a hurry to leave.
Sriram is a soft-spoken, easy-going man who had been my boss for many years before he took on a different role in the organization. Years of working with him had taught me that he rarely asked a question without a reason. I quickly replied that I was not in a hurry and asked if there was anything I could do for him. He said, ‘There is a conference call I would like you to attend at 20.00 hours. We can leave after that.’
This meant only one thing in IBM. It had to be a call from the Americans. Our head office was in the USA and due to the time difference, these conference calls were scheduled late night or in the early hours of the morning. We jokingly referred to them as ‘con calls’. Of course, if Sriram was asking me to attend, it had to be something important.
I called my wife, Meena, at home and told her that I would be late again. Meena, then a freelance journalist, worked from home. She also did various projects and research work which took her into the remote villages of India. She was at that time working on a book on organic cotton. She had just returned from one of her trips in
the morning and we had hardly met before I left for work. We had planned a quiet dinner at home but now that would have to wait.
I had two hours to kill before the call, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and went to the open space on the first floor to gape at the sunset and get some fresh air. If the con call meant a project offer, I would have to take a decision soon.
My cell phone rang suddenly, stirring me from my thoughts. It was Sriram trying to trace me. I rushed back to the conference room where he gave me a brief on the call we were to attend.
IBM was undertaking a conversion project with a third-party vendor in India and there was a huge budget earmarked for the exercise. The project was to be controlled out of the head office in USA and a lot of global attention was focused on its success. After screening many potential candidates within the organization, I had been selected to head the project for IBM, based in Mumbai. It was a tough project and they needed the best hands to handle it. The call that day was to introduce me to the team so that I would be part of the process right from the start of the project.
After a two-hour call where I was introduced to the team and also the entire project and its finer details, we left for our homes. I had reams of documents to read and understand before I got the hang of the entire project and its nuances.
As I squeezed my car into the never-ending stream of homeward-bound traffic, my thoughts were confused. I was working for one of the best companies in India with a superb project on hand and yet a part of me was not sure if that’s what I really wanted. My mind was in turmoil. Hardly a week ago I had reconciled myself to the idea that I had to quit this organization. There were things I wanted to do with my life.
Changing Over
It was in 1996 that I had quit German Remedies and joined Tata Information Systems Limited (TISL), which was a joint venture between the TATA group of companies and IBM, the global computer giant.
My job at TISL had been a new experience for me. After years of working for the industry in the in-house computer division, I was for the first time on the other side of the table. I was a consultant. We used to implement projects for different companies and the work was very challenging. It was a high-pressure job and everything was time-bound.
Our office in Nariman Point was a small one and we had to share one desk with our boss, Sriram. He would always guide us and help us out whenever the need arose. We were working for a new organization and the infrastructure was poor. We would all take turns to use his computer to check our mails and complete various administrative tasks. Even though we had many problems, the atmosphere at work was excellent and it was a joy to report to office every day.
I enjoyed my new role and did it well too. I managed to bag a few awards within the company and also got a good raise in my salary. Within a couple of years IBM was to buy out TATA and we were to become a fully owned IBM company. I was soon working for a multinational company (MNC).
Working for an MNC and that, too, one of the best in the world was a heart-warming experience. The company looked after all the needs of the employees. We moved from our poky office in Nariman Point to a large one at Bandra Kurla Complex. The office furnishings were all according to international standards and so were the facilities. The employees were expected to be given all comforts so they would do their jobs rather than run around and waste energy in administrative matters.
Besides the material comforts they provided, our salaries were raised to global standards. The company had liberal leave policies and we were expected to take a minimum of ten days’ leave every year. This was good for us as we could travel every year to a new location. We did exactly that and within a few years we had visited Bhutan, Nepal, the north-east states of India, and even managed a trip to Switzerland and Paris.
The job itself was extremely satisfying. We got to undertake software projects with some of the big business houses in India and implementing them was rewarding, especially since we followed some of the best global practices. The company also sent us abroad for training sessions. I was soon promoted as project manager and also certified by an international agency as a project management professional (PMP). There were few people in the country who were certified at that time and it was a big credit to our company.
Every project in IBM was considered a profit centre. We had to ensure that we stayed within the budget and made some profit at the end of the project. This was extremely challenging and it made the job all the more interesting. We had to look for ways of keeping the customer satisfied, for the focus of the company was very clear. Customer satisfaction was the foremost goal of the company. Every project was a tightrope walk, trying to balance the budget and the workload.
I seemed to have everything I desired, except the time to enjoy all of it. At IBM, there were no rules or pressure directly to perform. It was up to each employee to do their best. We did not have office timings or fixed leave or scheduled holidays. There were no machines to clock your in and out time. No one objected if you walked in late or left early. We were all provided with mobile phones and laptops so we could work from wherever we were located.
The company worked on the principle of ‘pay by performance’. The sales personnel had targets to meet and the service personnel had utilization to achieve. Utilization was the time you spent on projects which were making money for the company. You were considered unutilized if you sat in office and were not assigned any project. Every person who achieved the target was given huge monetary incentives besides trips abroad on company expense as a holiday. This kind of a setup has a flip side to it. It sometimes leads to self-imposed stress and pressure to perform well and stay on top.
The connectivity and infrastructure ensured that each employee was always on call if so desired. You could not get away from work at any point of time. In spite of various attempts by the company to bring in the balance between work and family life there was always this big gap in giving quality time to the family. We even had family outings and parties to ensure that employees and their families had fun. These outings would start in earnest but after a couple of drinks and a round of housie, the conversation would veer towards business. It was as if you were on a call with the company 24/7.
It was not that all employees of the company were conscientious and under stress to perform. We had our own group of employees who were called the ‘cc’ group or the carbon copy group. These were the people who did nothing but lip service and whenever a deal was coming to a closure, they would ensure that their names appeared on the ‘cc’ of each mail. They made sure that they got credit for the deal. These were the guys who spoke the most during the ‘con calls’. There was nothing that could be done with them.
After working with IBM for seven years I started getting restless. Being a project manager meant that I had to spend a lot of time on site with the team to ensure that things went smoothly with the project. The travel and long absences from home was also getting on my nerves. There were many of my colleagues who also felt the same and were making efforts to find a new job.
It was during one of those informal chats over tea with my colleagues that it dawned on me that maybe I did not need a new job. I thought that another job would be as good as this one. What would be different in a new job? Maybe the office location and the people who worked there. I would still be doing the same thing. It was clear that everyone needed an expert. If I was good at project management, all other companies would also offer me the same role. I needed to rethink what I wanted to do.
A new job would mean more money but then we already had enough. What would we do with more money? Probably buy a bigger house and a bigger car. A bigger house would be good but it was not a necessity. Even if we did buy a new one what could change? The view outside our window would probably still be of an air conditioning duct or worse still a clothesline. It would also mean we were back into the debt cycle with a huge Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) to pay every month.
I also wondered about the quality of work I was doing. I w
as putting all my effort to make some software work for a company which in turn paid IBM lots of money. Some of the money was handed over to me in the form of salary and perks while the bulk went out of the country into the pockets of the multinational corporations. The same money then came back to our country as debt or charity for some natural disaster or aid for government programmes.
The office atmosphere was great and the work ethic just wonderful. But I realized that work was becoming all-encompassing. There was hardly time for anything other than work. Besides, if I was on a project, I was away from home for long durations. I was thirty-seven years old and wondered if this is what I wished to do for the rest of my life.
I could not help but think of Mukta, one of my college friends, who had such great plans for her life which ended so abruptly with her death even before she was twenty-one. Life was short and uncertain. I felt it was better to do what I wanted to do when there was time and energy. Who knows what will happen in a few years?
I thought a lot and recalled all that Meena had told me of her various trips to villages during her research. Why shouldn’t we live a life where we could grow our own food and live close to nature? We could shift to a small village where we built our little house and lived off the land and its produce. The idea was forming in my mind and I discussed it with Meena.
I reasoned with her that we did not need a lot of money to live. Especially if we were growing our own food, we would not need much. We reasoned that if we could produce the bulk of our calorie requirement from the land itself there was hardly any other expense we would incur. We would need to spend on some essentials that we could not produce like salt and some spices but that was not much. I had no idea how much was needed to live in a village but knew that it would not be as high as what we spent in the city. We did not have children and did not have to worry about their schooling and relocation. We had the additional advantage that we had no major liabilities. Our parents were independent and were not staying with us.