Living for others

Robin Singh tells Nikita Mukherjee how he gave up a life of comfort and luxury to give back to the world—much more than what he has taken from it

- Nikita Mukherjee

Since the last few decades, our world has been slowly turning into a very cruel place where the meaning of compassion and empathy has got lost in the fragments of changing times. A lot of catastrophic events like wars and pandemics have taken place, which has changed the course of humanity. Moreover, the current times we live in have placed a seed of delusion in our minds, where fulfilling materialistic desires is more important than living together in harmony and peace. Money and power have corrupted the human mind and have distanced all of us from our virtues.

A while back, I was surfing through social media when I came upon a page called ‘Peepal Farm,’ where the pinned post was that of a young, enigmatic man telling his life story. I started watching the video and was completely moved by his profound words and philosophy. The guy in the video was Mr Robin Singh, founder of Peepal Farm. His non-profit organisation is a natural, organic farm in the Himalayan foothills, near Dharamsala, India, and deals with animal rescue and organic farming. I was intrigued by his journey from being a tech geek in the US to a social worker with the motive of ending the suffering of animals in India and, therefore, decided to make his story reach as many people as possible. So I contacted him to know more about him and his work. Over a telephonic conversation which lasted for more than an hour, Mr Singh gave me more insight into his life and work, and taught me a thing or two about how we all can bring about change and make the world a better place in such tumultuous times. Below is an account of that conversation: