Recent college grads are all too often disappointed with their transition from the collegiate experience to being chucked into the real world of mediocre city jobs with terrible hours and worse pay. Many take up the time-honoured tradition of cursing the world, their jobs and fundamentally spew their distaste for the underwhelming life of a metropolitan peon like a bodily gas slowly tainting the air with its all too unpleasant fumes. For some cribbing is the most cathartic way of coming to terms with the reality of one’s position as a bottom-of-the-foodchain young professional, and much like a bodily gas, the stench of their disappointment eventually dissipates allowing them to concentrate on a career path that takes a lesser toll on their life and mental health; perhaps they even reach the seemingly mythical notion of happiness in the workplace.

However, loads of youth are not suited to the city life, and long to move to the countryside. This option appears to most as borderline fantasy, a mere dream that offers a few minutes of solace before pessimism steps in and kicks that dream in the keister with harsh questions most can’t answer. How do I start a farm without knowing 101 agriculture skills? How will I make a living on a farm? What if I fail miserably?

Those aren’t easy questions to answer, but we give you the story of two young adults from the 1980s who decided the city life wasn’t for them after their time at Delhi University. They decided to start a farm, which decades later stands as a testament to their courage and desire for a healthy and sustainable life outside the claustrophobic cacophony of the city. Meet Juli and Vivek Cariappa of Krac-A-Dawna Organic Farm, just outside of Mysore.

This inspiring couple left their jobs in Delhi when Juli was 20 and Vivek 21, with only a small loan from their parents, and planted their flag on a plot of land near the Birwal village of Heggadadevana Kote Taluka in the Mysore district of Karnataka. And over thirty years later, with three children and forty acres of farmland filled with animals and plants Vivek tells The Better India, “People often ask us: wasn’t it difficult? I say no. This is what we wanted to do and wanted to be. It was positive. It taught us. So live today. Live everyday to the fullest! Live dangerously. Learn more. Don’t be afraid of failure”. How’s that for some inspiration.

Vivek and Juli look at each day as a new adventure and their love and respect for their farm shows a direct correlation to their success, as the duo has received the Krishi Pandit Award distributed to those who display the best farming practices according to the Department of Agriculture. Their property produces grains, oilseeds, eggs, food, fibre, spices, compost, cotton, paddy, millets, sugarcane, vegetables, among other things. Moreover, their property is graced with the presence of dogs, cats, sheep, cows, goats, and chickens. Anyone interested in forging their own way to farm should check out Krac-A-Dawna Organic Farm’s facebook page to learn more about their story and what’s happening on their idyllic hamlet in the Karnataka countryside. Some parting words of advice Vivek offered to millennials via The Better India is “to slow down, take it easy, and enjoy life because life is all about learning, a few successes and lots of failure.”

For the full The Better India Article click here.