Owning a farmhouse and living around greenery made me think that I am going to excel even in this field. To my surprise, the reality was something else which I never expected. 

To begin with, I built a farmhouse with a natural pool, added a few rooms to accommodate domestic help, and fixed a generator to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Next, I took expert advice for organic farming. All this not only cost me a lot of money but also brought in a number of associated issues I hadn’t anticipated.

How my dreams shattered?

A better perspective can be achieved if I list down all that went wrong:

• I had no expertise in farming. The borrowed knowledge led to disappointments, frustration and despair. My experimentation with farming turned out to be a failure. 
• Running a farmhouse wasn’t as easy as I thought. I was using it as a weekend getaway but every time I got there, I encountered several issues. 
• Money was going down the drain. Leave aside earning money from farming as I had expected, I only ended up spending on salaries of staff and failing crops. 
• My wife felt insecure as it was a lonely place. My kids were least interested because there was no community around. 
• I forgot my green building rules. I was fighting a lonely battle. 

My dreams of idyllic farm life for my family were shattered! At first, I was devastated. And then, I looked around. Was I alone in this situation? I had designed a few farmhouses before. Now, when I revisited them, I realised all the owners had similar tales to tell. Failure was not mine alone. That’s what got me thinking.

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Part 1

Read more about how the story evolved in Part 3 of this article...