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Renata and Sridhar moved to Tamil Nadu to live intentionally and raise their children without school.
Once immersed in the fast-paced life of the United Kingdom, Renata and Sridhar were successful in their demanding careers. But over time, the weight of hustle culture wore them down.
In 2019, just before the pandemic struck, they made a bold and unexpected move. They returned to Tamil Nadu in southern India, choosing to embrace a slower, more intentional way of living.
Perhaps their most radical decision was to raise their children without formal schooling. This marked the beginning of their unique approach to learning, which they call ‘farmschool’. There would be no classrooms, no chalkboards, just open fields, meaningful stories, and a curiosity-led approach to learning.
When their children asked to learn sailing, that became the next lesson. Their education was shaped by interest and experience, rather than a rigid curriculum. In the early days, the family lived off savings.
Eventually, they began growing their food and launched a line of handcrafted farm products. Everything, from cultivation to packaging, is done by hand, using natural methods and respect for the land.
They turned a once-barren plot into a verdant edible food forest. Layer by layer, they cultivated a rich variety of plants. There are towering trees like mango, jackfruit, and teakwood, alongside banana and pomegranate, medicinal herbs such as tulsi and basil, seasonal vines, and ground-level crops like pulses and pineapples.
Even beneath the surface, they grow root vegetables. They enrich the soil using animal manure, mulching techniques, and rain-harvest irrigation, avoiding any chemical intervention.
People mocked their choices, calling them naive and even reckless. But they stayed the course. Today, their children are confident, fluent in English, and ahead in basic numeracy, all without ever attending a traditional school.
The most difficult unlearning was not for the children, but for Renata and Sridhar themselves, letting go of fear, control, and convention. In return, they found a life of peace, purpose, and joy.