30/05/2025
The man who cares for these beauties is a G.O.A.T from the neighboring village. He has over 120 goats, a small ancestral land and lives in the village.
If he gives away five small goats, it’s a minimum of thirty to forty thousand rupees. Goat manure is on high demand in the neighboring villages as well. People come to him to buy, he doesn’t have to go to the town to sell. The goats live on the land, he fences them in patches moving it every two days to make the soil rich between crop schedules. Otherwise they graze freely in the foot hills and have plenty of safe shade during rain.
He grows only rainfed crops, cattle feed and doesn’t spend on manure or paid labor. This means farming cost is negligible.
His living expenses are minimum, considering they own a small house, grow staple millets and don’t need fuel. There are definitely challenges, like a trek, it involves hard work, an active lifestyle, solitude, clarity of priorities and a very content mind.
He spends the day barefoot on his land, with the breeze and a kambu kanji lunch.
A long conversation with him got me wondering, are we all too educated to understand the wealth and math of a life like this?
Keeping aside the benefits of good health, nutrition, breathtaking views and unimaginable freedom, his financial savings is great because he has a no fuss lifestyle.
Irrespective of what we earn in ‘progressive’ societies, with a more is less attitude, are the luxuries actually luxurious in the long run?
