week to learn my techniques he says this is the third crop for kumar and the yield has been prebooked by a delhibased trader i have almost earned 70 per cent of the pay i was drawing in delhi from the earlier two crops i hope to exceed it with the next harvest says the farmer who plans to buy an additional 20 acres and cultivate niche crops like sweet corn and cherry tomato ubai husein is just chalking out his agricultural schedule this 28yearold culinary arts graduate is in the process of relocating to his eightacre farm in a village called katai not far out of mumbai its an incremental process that will wean this city boy off the conveniences of doorstep deliveries and acclimatise him to the simple life it started with wanting to become a chef he explains i had travelled to the us to study and thats where i learned about sustainable models in the food business sourcing from local farmers backward integration and so on in maine i worked in a restaurant that sourced its ingredients from its own back garden on campus we had a group called chefs supporting agriculture and we would organise cookouts on farms to make people aware of where their food was coming from later i went on to work on a farm in florida for six months id started out wanting to start my own restaurant in mumbai but later simply wanted to come back and farm husein was fortunate to have inherited land he now wants to live on his farm grow what he eats and supply the rest to friends and family im looking at this as a lifestyle change not a moneymaking scheme i hope to earn from the farm while doing what i enjoy i can introduce valueaddition to the food i grow have people come over and sample farmfresh food run an agroretreat perhaps for husein migrating to the country is not an end in itself i hope to gain a shift in consciousness he says city life is not a viable way for me im choosing an alternative lifestyle i want people to see this as a workable model in a consumerist society people have no concept of where things come from we live a disconnected existence where we tell our children apples come from stores while husein wants his children to know the provenance of apples and avocadoes he is not acting precipitously were city people used to our comforts which is why were not rushing into this change he says and while we do not intend to live like ascetics well make the best of our surroundings like designing our house to minimise our dependence on electricity and optimise our natural resources out there you begin to realise all those things you considered needs you can actually do without although the city has cut into the village with tata sky hyundai and airtel apparent between the paddy