so do you know what is my whatsapp
status it says nature is my religion
I recently changed this and I think the
organizers invited me to speak today
after seeing that so that’s how it says
I’m Archana people call me a green
entrepreneur and that’s why I came in a
green color dress to today so okay
mocha is a part so I have an
entrepreneur who believes in creating a
community a community that eats healthy
and lives a happier life all of you love
to live a happy life right so that’s
what I do and what I realize is this is
possible only if we connect closer to
nature so do do you remember what is
this yeah thanks for the answer so as a
little girl I was always fascinated each
time I saw touch me nuts
I felt very curious when it touched and
it closed down its leaves its next so
every time I touched it close down at
least I felt very curious but nowadays
it’s very hard to find but I’m sure the
curiosity inside all of us is still
alive ok so that’s what I believe we all
need to connect more closer to nature
most of a childhood memories have
stories of watching sunrise building
sandcastles smelling roses and also
feeding animals at the zoo I’m sure you
will all agree with me that you a lot
more happier your lot more relaxed doing
all of this then sitting here or being
in your college or office right so as
children me and all of you I’m sure
we’re playing outside we used to be
hiding behind the trees we also got our
knees dirty but somehow today I don’t
even see kids and most of us we are very
very disconnected we are lost from this
natural world so that’s the purpose of
me Stan
here trying to reconnect all of you back
to nature and what I realized is the
words Environment Day theme for this
year was also the same connecting people
to nature so I want to tell you that I
also have a secret love for food maybe
you don’t realize after seeing me but I
also love food recently I’ve discovered
the whole new joy of eating food that is
very fresh and homegrown so like on my
Terrace
every morning I experience nature’s
magic as I what are the plants as I grow
a tomato so with every term with every
tomato that grows and every spinach I
harvest
I feel more closer to nature have you
felt this so I see this every day on my
Terrace and eating healthy food matters
a lot there’s always a special feeling
when you actually grow something
harvested and you even get to taste it
it also tastes very nice it’s not just
the ones like you find in the organic
shops it even tastes better right so I
grew it myself with love so who doesn’t
enjoy the fruit of one’s labor so my
dream I would like to emphasize again is
to create a community that eats healthy
and lives a happier life talking about
my life I studied engineering
that’s that’s the pasta so I studied
engineering but today what me and my
husband do farming we have zero
practical knowledge about farming or
agriculture but we a lot more happier so
I am so happy I made three important
decisions in my life okay
before that the whole presentation of
mine is going to revolve around an HOA
scure cheaper than therapy okay so I
would like to talk about the three
important decisions of my life so if not
for these three I would be one of those
intellectual fools okay intellectual
fools meaning those who believe that
nature exists or is very beautiful only
in Discovery Channel or holiday holiday
honeymoon destinations so I’m so happy I
did three of them in my life and all of
them have changed my life and brought me
more closer so what are those three one
is restoring ponds number two urban
farming and three is nature nature buzz
learning I would like to take you one by
one okay so all of this is why I tell
you you all should get out and go and be
closer to nature so this is number one I
have a story behind it in 2012
I moved from Chennai – where is a Nagar
where the negative is actually a tyre
three City down south and it is the
second driest place in Tamil Nadu okay
so I haven’t experienced water scarcity
before until then we used to get proper
drinking water once in 20 days imagine
and we had to store and use it wisely in
such a scenario on one Sunday evening I
was just walking down the road with my
husband and he told me that this stretch
of land used to be a pond I did not
understand
used to be a pond so he told me that
this is the place where his parents as
children used to play and swim but today
he hasn’t seen water at all in his life
imagine for almost two decades there has
not been water in this and it used to be
a pond I was shocked I kept asking him
why
so the answer that he told me was the
pond was not maintained well then the
next question can we do something about
it and my husband said yes we can
restore it but he takes a lot of effort
so with no further doubt we decided to
act
I quickly raised some funds online
through a crowdfunding campaign I would
like to thank my friends and
well-wishers who believed in me and then
that gave us the confidence we then
spoke to the local community we spoke to
the people and started work in about two
weeks look at this there are so many
thoughts it’s all dumped with waste okay
so we first remove the thongs these are
actually called sea Makara vellum or
juliflora which is a big threat to the
environment so we removed them cleared
the waste deserted the soil and then
also made sure the inlets were all
cleared with waste so that was a work we
did we were really not sure what the end
result is going to be but I was I really
wanted this place to at least look like
a pond so that’s the only thing we had
so this is how we started clearing or
declaring the entire stretch about
almost three acres of land so finally
after all our work this is how it looked
okay so after about two months the
people totally we all forgot about it
it was monsoon time late one night I got
a call from an old man a total stranger
he was like very excited and shouting
with joy that the pond was overflowing
with water and he hasn’t seen this in
the last 20 years okay that
that made our day okay so I realized
nature’s gifts are hard to value we
actually care for this pond and worked
on it for only seven days seven days but
nature was very very generous it poured
rains and it gave water four thousand
families around it and not for that one
day but for six months and this changed
the people also they stopped throwing
waste there so in three months time the
whole point was restored to actually
serve his purpose this is how the pond
looked after the rains and it was a
peasant site so it gave us a lot of
confidence I asked we became nature
lovers now I connect it to my whatsapp
status nature is my religion okay so
that’s the first story about second this
was on a large scale secondly personally
what changed me was urban farming was
urban farming before I started growing
vegetables on my Terrace
I really thought ladies fingers grow on
trees and carrot can be grown only in
Ooty or Kodaikanal
but after growing I realized vegetable
is a plant it hardly gives 30 vegetables
per plant so and carrots in the same
place where the vinegar which is the dry
place we grew carrots at home so that
totally changed my perspective so I
became more more connected I actually
scored a centum in biology hearing to
our standard I know this deserves a clap
so I scored a send him in biology but I
learned a lot about plants and food
through urban farming okay so we have
converted a small little terrace into a
kitchen garden and that is what I call
my urban farm we grow about 12 varieties
of spinach a lot of vegetables like
tomato brinjaul ladies finger radish and
even a lot of herbs so food is medicine
all of this I’ve gone into our diet so
the change starts from there in the last
two years my family has not bought
spinach from the shop a few vegetables –
but spinach to be particular we haven’t
bought it from the shop and like any
other family the food menu does not get
decided that previous night the morning
we go to the terrace we water the plants
and depending on the harvest of the day
we decide the menu of the day so that’s
how it is so all this is bringing us
closer so you see how fresh the leaves
are and they’re all truly organic it’s
not like the once again that you buy
from organic shops okay we still doubt
the label we go to shop how many of you
go to organic shops here like your
families start buying from there okay
I’m sure most of you who still doubt the
label there but to be really organic I I
bet you should start growing it yourself
okay so growing things on my Terrace
taught me a lot of things first I don’t
waste food like I did before I now know
how much effort it takes to actually
create food and bring it to my table I
don’t waste food that is self is a big
big change I realize the importance of
nature there and secondly like I said
the food tastes a lot lot better it
really is true food what we really eat
today I don’t say I it is not worthy to
be called food I should say they are
food-like substances you agree with me
we needed so much on the papers every
day so that moat all this awareness
motivated me and husband to start
organic farming so this is the radish
okay so that is a very very cherishable
memory the first time I grew a radish I
wondered how a tiny little seed it
slowly germinated it showed leaves and
one fine day after 45 days it came
popping out of the soil saying I am
ready so that’s how it is
so so small small Joy’s slowly
culminated and me and my husband took to
farming so this is a farm land and all
this was possible without practically
any knowledge in agriculture so every
day is an adventure we keep learning
about food so this is all this a harvest
from my garden so you look at how fresh
they are even if even if it has small
holes or any insect in it still we cut
that part and eat the rest we don’t just
throw it so my dear friends what I’m
trying to tell you is food it has to be
locally grown and locally consumed so by
doing that we actually reduce the food
miles so please go local ok so next time
you want to eat a Washington Apple
imagine that distances are traveled all
the way from Washington storing and
coming to your place so that’s where all
the problems start so do you all
remember the world a cyclone has it been
more than a year no right so during the
war the cyclone almost a lot trees wave
falling down they couldn’t stand
straight they were uprooted but did you
also notice that they were lot more
other trees that survived the winds how
they were all native trees they were all
native to our soil and they were very
adaptable so if you really really care
for your environment when you give
saplings or when you do some plantation
plant a lot of native trees so over the
last 4 years myself and friends we have
planted over 800 native trees
and and he did not start with that we
keep nurturing them so that’s the
problem we not a lot of saplings and we
forget it so plants trees and make sure
they become trees personally I can’t
imagine a life without Wi-Fi or Internet
can you all do it so this is this is the
message that I’m trying to say there is
no Wi-Fi in the forest but I’m sure we
will all find a stronger connection
there so that’s the end of the second
story first we saw about how a pond
could be restored second about growing
food on our own Terrace and third all
this experience I see that adults need
to be unlearned unlearning is difficult
but learning is quite easy so that’s
what we really understood that nature
based learning has to be part of our
growing phase and today’s children need
to be taught the value of nature they
really are lost so in order to bring
them back we made sure we brought in a
new curriculum and I’m working on it
so this is a school garden that we
created so what I really do is I work
with schools we bring the children
outside the classroom and let them spend
time in a natural environment they are
in a very natural environment they get
their hands dirty they dig the soil they
even plant
plus a school garden they actually catch
butterflies they walk on the grass and
during all this process they learn lot
more important lessons in life they
learn patience okay so they learn a lot
more important things in life and they
also understand sustainability they
become more environment countries so
that all this can happen if we can
inspire of our learning phase so what me
as an entrepreneur trying to do is we go
to schools and we engage children to
become more eco-friendly so they even
convert their waste into wealth they do
it through composting and then they use
the same compost for the garden
this has resulted in two things one the
kid now appreciates nature and starts
observing the little things so even a
caterpillar goes it connect the child
connects it to becoming a butterfly so
every little thing that the child sees
they start appreciating and second is
the most important so kids you see
they’re all growing spinach so when kids
learn to grow their own food they start
making healthy food choices so the child
comes to the mother and tells me I grew
this palette come on make it for me
instead are we forcing it on the child
okay so this makes the parents happy and
me personally that’s what I’m trying to
do right I want to build a community
that eats healthy and it also lives
happier so my end goal is reached so I’m
currently working on this curriculum of
nature based learning to create
healthier families and happier
individuals I think all the three have
been a great great impact in my life and
I wish or if you can also do this so in
order to succeed in life we got to do
three things one learn unlearn and
relearn but to live a very very happy
life it’s very simple he got into only
one thing you need to connect closer to
nature so take time off your busy
schedules forget your laptops go out go
plant a tree more so go grow a vegetable
I’m sure all of you can’t get out and
grow our own food
but one thing is going to happen it’s
definitely going to make a big
difference in our relationship with food
so just grow a vegetable taste it
celebrate nature and together let’s all
build a greener and healthier world
thank you
you
status it says nature is my religion
I recently changed this and I think the
organizers invited me to speak today
after seeing that so that’s how it says
I’m Archana people call me a green
entrepreneur and that’s why I came in a
green color dress to today so okay
mocha is a part so I have an
entrepreneur who believes in creating a
community a community that eats healthy
and lives a happier life all of you love
to live a happy life right so that’s
what I do and what I realize is this is
possible only if we connect closer to
nature so do do you remember what is
this yeah thanks for the answer so as a
little girl I was always fascinated each
time I saw touch me nuts
I felt very curious when it touched and
it closed down its leaves its next so
every time I touched it close down at
least I felt very curious but nowadays
it’s very hard to find but I’m sure the
curiosity inside all of us is still
alive ok so that’s what I believe we all
need to connect more closer to nature
most of a childhood memories have
stories of watching sunrise building
sandcastles smelling roses and also
feeding animals at the zoo I’m sure you
will all agree with me that you a lot
more happier your lot more relaxed doing
all of this then sitting here or being
in your college or office right so as
children me and all of you I’m sure
we’re playing outside we used to be
hiding behind the trees we also got our
knees dirty but somehow today I don’t
even see kids and most of us we are very
very disconnected we are lost from this
natural world so that’s the purpose of
me Stan
here trying to reconnect all of you back
to nature and what I realized is the
words Environment Day theme for this
year was also the same connecting people
to nature so I want to tell you that I
also have a secret love for food maybe
you don’t realize after seeing me but I
also love food recently I’ve discovered
the whole new joy of eating food that is
very fresh and homegrown so like on my
Terrace
every morning I experience nature’s
magic as I what are the plants as I grow
a tomato so with every term with every
tomato that grows and every spinach I
harvest
I feel more closer to nature have you
felt this so I see this every day on my
Terrace and eating healthy food matters
a lot there’s always a special feeling
when you actually grow something
harvested and you even get to taste it
it also tastes very nice it’s not just
the ones like you find in the organic
shops it even tastes better right so I
grew it myself with love so who doesn’t
enjoy the fruit of one’s labor so my
dream I would like to emphasize again is
to create a community that eats healthy
and lives a happier life talking about
my life I studied engineering
that’s that’s the pasta so I studied
engineering but today what me and my
husband do farming we have zero
practical knowledge about farming or
agriculture but we a lot more happier so
I am so happy I made three important
decisions in my life okay
before that the whole presentation of
mine is going to revolve around an HOA
scure cheaper than therapy okay so I
would like to talk about the three
important decisions of my life so if not
for these three I would be one of those
intellectual fools okay intellectual
fools meaning those who believe that
nature exists or is very beautiful only
in Discovery Channel or holiday holiday
honeymoon destinations so I’m so happy I
did three of them in my life and all of
them have changed my life and brought me
more closer so what are those three one
is restoring ponds number two urban
farming and three is nature nature buzz
learning I would like to take you one by
one okay so all of this is why I tell
you you all should get out and go and be
closer to nature so this is number one I
have a story behind it in 2012
I moved from Chennai – where is a Nagar
where the negative is actually a tyre
three City down south and it is the
second driest place in Tamil Nadu okay
so I haven’t experienced water scarcity
before until then we used to get proper
drinking water once in 20 days imagine
and we had to store and use it wisely in
such a scenario on one Sunday evening I
was just walking down the road with my
husband and he told me that this stretch
of land used to be a pond I did not
understand
used to be a pond so he told me that
this is the place where his parents as
children used to play and swim but today
he hasn’t seen water at all in his life
imagine for almost two decades there has
not been water in this and it used to be
a pond I was shocked I kept asking him
why
so the answer that he told me was the
pond was not maintained well then the
next question can we do something about
it and my husband said yes we can
restore it but he takes a lot of effort
so with no further doubt we decided to
act
I quickly raised some funds online
through a crowdfunding campaign I would
like to thank my friends and
well-wishers who believed in me and then
that gave us the confidence we then
spoke to the local community we spoke to
the people and started work in about two
weeks look at this there are so many
thoughts it’s all dumped with waste okay
so we first remove the thongs these are
actually called sea Makara vellum or
juliflora which is a big threat to the
environment so we removed them cleared
the waste deserted the soil and then
also made sure the inlets were all
cleared with waste so that was a work we
did we were really not sure what the end
result is going to be but I was I really
wanted this place to at least look like
a pond so that’s the only thing we had
so this is how we started clearing or
declaring the entire stretch about
almost three acres of land so finally
after all our work this is how it looked
okay so after about two months the
people totally we all forgot about it
it was monsoon time late one night I got
a call from an old man a total stranger
he was like very excited and shouting
with joy that the pond was overflowing
with water and he hasn’t seen this in
the last 20 years okay that
that made our day okay so I realized
nature’s gifts are hard to value we
actually care for this pond and worked
on it for only seven days seven days but
nature was very very generous it poured
rains and it gave water four thousand
families around it and not for that one
day but for six months and this changed
the people also they stopped throwing
waste there so in three months time the
whole point was restored to actually
serve his purpose this is how the pond
looked after the rains and it was a
peasant site so it gave us a lot of
confidence I asked we became nature
lovers now I connect it to my whatsapp
status nature is my religion okay so
that’s the first story about second this
was on a large scale secondly personally
what changed me was urban farming was
urban farming before I started growing
vegetables on my Terrace
I really thought ladies fingers grow on
trees and carrot can be grown only in
Ooty or Kodaikanal
but after growing I realized vegetable
is a plant it hardly gives 30 vegetables
per plant so and carrots in the same
place where the vinegar which is the dry
place we grew carrots at home so that
totally changed my perspective so I
became more more connected I actually
scored a centum in biology hearing to
our standard I know this deserves a clap
so I scored a send him in biology but I
learned a lot about plants and food
through urban farming okay so we have
converted a small little terrace into a
kitchen garden and that is what I call
my urban farm we grow about 12 varieties
of spinach a lot of vegetables like
tomato brinjaul ladies finger radish and
even a lot of herbs so food is medicine
all of this I’ve gone into our diet so
the change starts from there in the last
two years my family has not bought
spinach from the shop a few vegetables –
but spinach to be particular we haven’t
bought it from the shop and like any
other family the food menu does not get
decided that previous night the morning
we go to the terrace we water the plants
and depending on the harvest of the day
we decide the menu of the day so that’s
how it is so all this is bringing us
closer so you see how fresh the leaves
are and they’re all truly organic it’s
not like the once again that you buy
from organic shops okay we still doubt
the label we go to shop how many of you
go to organic shops here like your
families start buying from there okay
I’m sure most of you who still doubt the
label there but to be really organic I I
bet you should start growing it yourself
okay so growing things on my Terrace
taught me a lot of things first I don’t
waste food like I did before I now know
how much effort it takes to actually
create food and bring it to my table I
don’t waste food that is self is a big
big change I realize the importance of
nature there and secondly like I said
the food tastes a lot lot better it
really is true food what we really eat
today I don’t say I it is not worthy to
be called food I should say they are
food-like substances you agree with me
we needed so much on the papers every
day so that moat all this awareness
motivated me and husband to start
organic farming so this is the radish
okay so that is a very very cherishable
memory the first time I grew a radish I
wondered how a tiny little seed it
slowly germinated it showed leaves and
one fine day after 45 days it came
popping out of the soil saying I am
ready so that’s how it is
so so small small Joy’s slowly
culminated and me and my husband took to
farming so this is a farm land and all
this was possible without practically
any knowledge in agriculture so every
day is an adventure we keep learning
about food so this is all this a harvest
from my garden so you look at how fresh
they are even if even if it has small
holes or any insect in it still we cut
that part and eat the rest we don’t just
throw it so my dear friends what I’m
trying to tell you is food it has to be
locally grown and locally consumed so by
doing that we actually reduce the food
miles so please go local ok so next time
you want to eat a Washington Apple
imagine that distances are traveled all
the way from Washington storing and
coming to your place so that’s where all
the problems start so do you all
remember the world a cyclone has it been
more than a year no right so during the
war the cyclone almost a lot trees wave
falling down they couldn’t stand
straight they were uprooted but did you
also notice that they were lot more
other trees that survived the winds how
they were all native trees they were all
native to our soil and they were very
adaptable so if you really really care
for your environment when you give
saplings or when you do some plantation
plant a lot of native trees so over the
last 4 years myself and friends we have
planted over 800 native trees
and and he did not start with that we
keep nurturing them so that’s the
problem we not a lot of saplings and we
forget it so plants trees and make sure
they become trees personally I can’t
imagine a life without Wi-Fi or Internet
can you all do it so this is this is the
message that I’m trying to say there is
no Wi-Fi in the forest but I’m sure we
will all find a stronger connection
there so that’s the end of the second
story first we saw about how a pond
could be restored second about growing
food on our own Terrace and third all
this experience I see that adults need
to be unlearned unlearning is difficult
but learning is quite easy so that’s
what we really understood that nature
based learning has to be part of our
growing phase and today’s children need
to be taught the value of nature they
really are lost so in order to bring
them back we made sure we brought in a
new curriculum and I’m working on it
so this is a school garden that we
created so what I really do is I work
with schools we bring the children
outside the classroom and let them spend
time in a natural environment they are
in a very natural environment they get
their hands dirty they dig the soil they
even plant
plus a school garden they actually catch
butterflies they walk on the grass and
during all this process they learn lot
more important lessons in life they
learn patience okay so they learn a lot
more important things in life and they
also understand sustainability they
become more environment countries so
that all this can happen if we can
inspire of our learning phase so what me
as an entrepreneur trying to do is we go
to schools and we engage children to
become more eco-friendly so they even
convert their waste into wealth they do
it through composting and then they use
the same compost for the garden
this has resulted in two things one the
kid now appreciates nature and starts
observing the little things so even a
caterpillar goes it connect the child
connects it to becoming a butterfly so
every little thing that the child sees
they start appreciating and second is
the most important so kids you see
they’re all growing spinach so when kids
learn to grow their own food they start
making healthy food choices so the child
comes to the mother and tells me I grew
this palette come on make it for me
instead are we forcing it on the child
okay so this makes the parents happy and
me personally that’s what I’m trying to
do right I want to build a community
that eats healthy and it also lives
happier so my end goal is reached so I’m
currently working on this curriculum of
nature based learning to create
healthier families and happier
individuals I think all the three have
been a great great impact in my life and
I wish or if you can also do this so in
order to succeed in life we got to do
three things one learn unlearn and
relearn but to live a very very happy
life it’s very simple he got into only
one thing you need to connect closer to
nature so take time off your busy
schedules forget your laptops go out go
plant a tree more so go grow a vegetable
I’m sure all of you can’t get out and
grow our own food
but one thing is going to happen it’s
definitely going to make a big
difference in our relationship with food
so just grow a vegetable taste it
celebrate nature and together let’s all
build a greener and healthier world
thank you
you
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