LAY OF THE LAND

Subverting the toxic doctrine of hustle culture, Jahan Jhala left his corporate job in the UK to return to his fourth-generation family farm in Gujarat’s Gir forest. Along with his partner Mallika Chandra, he has now undertaken the ambitious endeavour of transforming the plot into a lush, biodynamic pocket, finds Sadaf Shaikh

- Sadaf Shaikh

“The best fertiliser is the farmer’s footsteps on his land”— Confucius (500BC)

JAHAN JHALA SAGACIOUSLY INVOKES the famous philosopher’s words, smoothly eliding the 2,500-plus years between when they were uttered and the present as he Zooms from the Gir forest. The 30-year-old appears discernibly fatigued as we chat about Wild Jai Farm, a 53-acre estate that has been in his family for four generations, of which he recently became custodian. But his exhaustion springs from the sweet pain of physical toil, not millennial ennui. He’s spent the day in a flurry of activity. “You’ve called on a very auspicious day for the farm,” he says mysteriously, waving away my curiosity as I try to probe further, insisting that he’ll reveal all in due time.

Jhala wasn’t always this beatifically effervescent. Born in Delhi, he moved to the UK at the age of 10, and upon completing his studies, found himself working as a strategist whose job involved designing solutions for brands that wanted to watch their carbon footprint. As he plunged deeper into research, he realised that “eliminating plastic straws” would always be the ultimate benchmark for corporations to adopt in the name of environmental impact. Disillusioned, he wanted to effect real change rather than simmer behind a screen. He quit his job and began volunteering once a week at Tablehurst, a community biodynamic farm and garden in Sussex. Soon it rose to two days a week, then three, and before he knew it, he had spent seven months as a full-time volunteer at Plaw Hatch Farm, Tablehurst’s sister estate.