By IndiaHub 
For many of us, there is a dream about a distant day when everything would suddenly be alright and much better. At that place, at some point in the future, we would become someone else. We anchor our betterment plans to that romanticised future. We will grow and cook our food and eat healthy, work out regularly, take long walks and hikes, learn some music and start painting, make new friends, read more books, and even venture to write a memoir. But all this happens sometime somewhere in a future that is so joyous to conjure up in our minds. We mostly don’t know how and when we will take that leap and actually change, but we romanticise it.
Some inconvenient truths
Moving to a remote area to live amidst nature is one such dream many have. But we may not be fully prepared for what it takes. Let me list some of the troubles our friends went through, perhaps representative of someone shifting from the urban life to the quiet of the villages.
First: getting familiar with various forms of life around us is a new experience. Being used to pest control regimes in urban homes and letting out sharp screams at spiders and lizards, we are not prepared to understand that life thrives in natural habitats. The early morning bird songs feel great, but the cycle of life holds snakes and wolves, foxes and owls, rabbits, rats and critters, and a whole range of bees, bugs, beetles, and wasps. To create our habitat, shield it from other creatures, and understand what cohabitation entails takes time, patience, knowledge, and compassion.
Second, one cannot prepare enough for physical labour. We may assume that we can hire people to build, repair, and set up our home and get started with the farm, but ongoing work involves a long list of tasks that we may have to roll up our sleeves and get into. Labour may not arrive at our time and convenience for small and big tasks arising every now and then. Tending to land involves consistent physical effort. Even a seemingly simple task of harvesting will involve standing out in the sun all day, cutting, collecting, cleaning, and carrying significantly heavy things around.
Third, we may have excelled as strategic thinkers in our regular jobs. But working with nature requires a different level of resilience, spontaneity, and the ability to deal with uncertainties. Even the best-laid plans can fail, and the causes can be a complex web of many factors. Insects fleeing the chemically treated neighbor’s farm can seek refuge in our organic orchards; rains can fail or flood unexpectedly; roads may close access for days, and power can fail for days on end. It may be expensive to allocate capital for every unforeseen event, and dealing with them as they occur can be messy and inconvenient.
Contemplating beyond plans
Fourth, prioritizing capital outlays may become difficult, even for the best project managers. Initial plans for staying at the farm could be driven by convenience and ambition, including borewells, solar energy, converters, solid fences, and such large capital expenditures. As one contemplates living there, the list of conveniences can get out of hand. The house may turn out to be larger than the available land for construction. One may slowly find oneself seeking urban conveniences and more. The manicured lawns and landscape, the swimming pool, the patio and moon bar, high walls and security—you get the drift.
Fifth, creating a food forest and a sustainable food garden that supplies the household is an ongoing task that demands time, effort, resources, and unbridled enthusiasm. It is neither easy nor inexpensive at that scale. There is both science and art involved in formulating and executing that plan. A food garden can remain a work in progress for years, as one observes and learns and understands what works and what does not. Unless one commits to that lifestyle of everyday work, a mix of success and failure, and the commitment to continuous learning from doing, it is easy to throw one’s hand in despair and give up.
Sixth, rural living almost always involves the community. It takes time and effort to become one of their own. To live an isolated, fenced existence will undermine the joys of rural living but, more importantly, cut off help when one might need it most. Local native intelligence about what to grow, how and when; how to deal with local life forms; and indigenous cures and remedies for common problems are all very precious to ignore. For those with a sense of purpose and determination to support and uplift the lives of communities they choose to live with, rural living can lend purpose and meaning while bestowing one with precious knowledge, understanding, and belonging.
Make a conscious choice
Shifting away to rural living calls for a conscious choice about what one wants to do and why. If the idea is to shift to something simpler and aligned to nature, one must be bold and courageous to give up the conveniences of urban living.
Sleeping on the terrace under the stars is sustainable only if one does not seek the temperature controls of an air conditioner. Not to mention the buzz of insects and the unexpected rain that one must wake up to and scurry downstairs. Not all of us may be prepared for that change.
There are many that have invested in such rural homes and village getaways. These are mostly maintained by caretakers and cooks. In recent years many have opened up as homestays for renting. If the urge to live elsewhere is high, consider one of these on a long-term rent basis. Live there to know how it all feels after the initial few days of euphoria. Before investing your retirement corpus in a proposition that can turn bad sooner than expected, allow others’ mistakes to offer some lessons for your benefit. It may be worth dipping your toes before taking a plunge.
The Author is CHAIRPERSON, CENTRE FOR INVESTMENT EDUCATION AND LEARNING