Anindita Bhattacharya is a Sitecore Solutions Architect at Konabos Consulting Inc. In this episode, she joins with her husband - Kanda Ganesan - to talk about their move to the countryside and Kanda's change of career from technology consulting to farming.
Akshay Sura
Welcome to the Konaverse podcast. This is Akshay Sura
Matthew McQueeny
and this is Matt McQueeny.
Akshay Sura
And with us today is Kanda, he is the husband of Anindita who works with us at Konabos and we felt he had a very compelling interesting life story that we would want to speak with him. Welcome to the show Kanda.
Kanda
Thank you so much for that.
Akshay Sura
So let's start off with something really simple. It's uh, where were you born? Where did you grow up?
Kanda
Yeah, I'm born in a place near to the seashore, like Bay of Bengal seashores, Caracol is a small town in southern part of India. And yeah, schooling everything is I studied here. And then I moved to the college, little nearby cities, like Willow, and Benjauo. All Southern parts. I done my Master's in computer science and engineering. And then I worked in Bangalore for more than 15 years. And then moved to farming.
Matthew McQueeny
What was your upbringing like Kanda?
Kanda
Yeah, it's a very small town, like a kind of very countryside town kind of thing. So and I'm living in, maybe you can call it is a village when I was in the childhood time. A little bit has expanded now. It's like, we have facilities of small town as such now, previously, it was like a pure village setup.
Matthew McQueeny
And so if you growing up in a small town, when when did you come in contact with technology as an interest and just even as something that you might want to do?
Kanda
At my graduation, I joined in computer science technology courses, and then as I moved to the city, colleges and everything, then after post graduation, I got a job in Bangalore, then it started.
Akshay Sura
But you knew you knew ahead of time that you wanted to get into the technology field?
Anindita
Yeah, I don't think one thing I'd probably like to add there is he didn't clearly he was never really educationally inclined, as far as what I've understood. It was more like Okay, fine. And I think his brother was the one, his oldest brother, he initially moved to us and with that, you know, the condition of the family has started started changing slowly. So, education and everything I think his brothers handled for him. So yeah, from what I've heard it didn't sound like he was very educationaly inclined in the beginning. It's just something that with the computer, boom, just went through and then yeah, get placement. That's what I understood.
Matthew McQueeny
we're in America did your brother go first?
Kanda
He lives right now in Milpitas, California.
Akshay Sura
So like at what point, so you were obviously you finished your schooling, I think, based on your LinkedIn, I forget but you did BSc MSC and then MTech on top of that, right.
Kanda
Yeah, it's good seven years in college. Yes. What
Akshay Sura
What made you, so after MSC so Master in Science, what made you go for that extra step and do the MTech?
Kanda
Yeah, there are some breadsticks around like getting into the Indian based software companies like if you are MCA or you are an engineering graduate, you're most welcome and as a fresher to the job. So, when your master's in science and computer science, engineering science, then people usually like you will be not direct entry or something like that you are to get into small company and then you are to yourself, then you get into a big company. So and also there is initial, from the village background in getting into the city or technology bear side, it is like I always declare some other options like few I was a MTech, then there isn't a chance of lectureship in engineering college. Or initially it is like college days, it's maybe a variety of things right in comes in your mind. Maybe you can do research or academic research and other things. So that sort of scope I got into the master's MTech in computer center in New Delhi, then back into same software job later. So, it went like that.
Matthew McQueeny
Now Akshay, I'm interested in this just from the, and Kanda as well, in India Akshay where you grew up. How far is this from where Kanda grew up?
Akshay Sura
Oh, I'm from Hyderabad, so I think it's a long road trip, probably like an hour and a half to two hours with a plane flight. I would imagine
Matthew McQueeny
A plane flight, wow
Akshay Sura
So, um, so kinda like how, so you finished your MTech and obviously MTech gave you the ability to get a job easier, right, like the first job into the tech industry. How long did you work in the tech industry?
Kanda
Almost 15 years.
Akshay Sura
So in those 15 years, did you enjoy any part of it, like, what take us through the progression of when you first joined with your first job till the time when you decided enough is enough, I've worked enough, I want to do what makes me happy.
Kanda
Yeah, I was enjoying my job and it's like, most of the companies, I get a chance to work with the product development. So where I get always I get with the technology, things and everything. So that made me to interest in working much on I.T. Like always, the technology company or like product companies wants the technology to be the new technology and latest ones, right. So always have something to learn and explore things. So even maybe it's a small R&D work, work will be there. So it is always doing that makes you really happy then do the regular work, right? So that sort of things was happy. And then back in my mind, because I grown up in a village background and everything so it's always there, I want to go back to my place and the less that it is always there in my mind, like I want to go back and some thought of going and coming back and like five years back or something like that. I was trying to, more than five years actually. So come back and do some sort of farming and join the lecturer job and settle down here. But unfortunately, it is not happen then came back to I.T. Then I continued again. Recently, we decided to move here. And yeah, the job I met Anindita. And we were in on site that time and we both are now to travel. See there we started the first travel. We actually traveled quite a lot in around that time like when we are on site. Like he stayed in Tennessee Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, like and for like five to six months there. There we create the travel log and we become more friend and the travel buddy. And we after that also we continued like five to six years as a travel buddy and we traveled quite a lot. Then we got married. Then I was when Yeah, it's almost four years back I got some Chickenpox, I was quarantined at home for two weeks that I was this thought back in my mind again and I was just thinking and telling her the idea. So I'm thinking of going back to India and do some sort of forming and that she initially thought like okay, it's like my retirement plan and will lap and after that decade of something, then I say no, I want to go in couple of years, because this is the right time I can go again so that I can do physical work as in the form of search. Because if I operate I am and I can go just like full time managing things I can do, but I can always rely on people do things. So this is maybe the right time to go, then I can take at least couple of years to get into things. So I was explaining her about my plan and vision of how I want to set up my farm and they were thinking, then we agreed upon some point. Okay, we'll move then we had a discussion, and that they only have three constraints to move here. But she need a -
Akshay Sura
I know the story a little bit, but it's funny go on.
Anindita
That actually wasn't as much as he's making it sound. So for me it was if I'm trying to move someplace, I literally can move anywhere. As long as I have good internet, good air conditioning and Amazon deliverable PIN code. That's all I needed. like Amazon delivered to my place. I was like okay, fine come lets go.
Matthew McQueeny
And Ani, how did you decide where to move?
Anindita
So this is actually his town as such as in his parent, his mom lives here, brother lives here and this is where he's been brought up. So in fact, the house that we stay at, it's like downstairs, his mother my in laws, and his brother's family. So they were all here, they've been here for a while. And what we did was we built the first floor up for our house, and we moved here. So this is his native place as such, so that was a no brainer.
Matthew McQueeny
And so what what is it like? It's a really interesting difference in days, right? What is it like as you're sitting there, working global technology, and then he's doing kind of local farming, right? It's like the two different things. What is that day like?
Anindita
Things didn't really change too much for me, because I had started working remotely because my father was six, I started working remotely or around 2017, even two years before we moved here. So before we even started talking about moving here, I was already working remotely from Bangalore itself. And when we spoke about moving, I kind of said, I'm going to continue working anyways, because I work remotely, you can do whatever you like, that's fine. As long as you don't ask me to go stand in the hot sun in the farm, I'm fine with that. I'm not really much of a outdoorsy person. So he does all of that. So as far as you know, the place is concerned, again, it didn't make much of a difference to me. And even in Bangalore, I wasn't. I've never even though I've grown up in a city, I've never been very much of a you know, outgoing types. I'm happy sitting at home doing all my online shopping, everything getting delivered to my doorstep. I'm happy with all of that. So that nothing much has changed as much except that you and I need to go to the shops, nobody deliver stuff here. Most of the things so other than that, I don't really miss much.
Matthew McQueeny
I think that that's one of the pieces with you know, the the loss in COVID has been terrible, obviously. But it's allowed us to rethink a lot of things. And I mean, you were, you did this before COVID It sounds like but I think it's there's almost a freedom feeling of this remote work. And it, it opens the possibilities of what you can do and where you can live. And you can almost create, you know, like the way we create custom applications, you can create like a custom life, right?
Anindita
I was actually really looking forward to that after moving here. So like I said, My father was unwell. So even while I started working remotely in 2017, I couldn't really go out as much. I mean, even though he was really cooperative in between, I used to like traveling. So I would literally dump him with all the responsibility and run away to Spain and stuff like that. So I have done that a couple of times, and he would handle everything, which is saying something because my father was suffering from dementia, it's not that easy to handle those things. And the he would do that doesn't matter. I would just leave everything and go away. So I was looking forward to coming here because there's a lot more help and stuff over here. So they go I'm going to travel once we come here. I literally came here in three months. And it's That's it, it's been COVID since then, haven't been able to go anywhere. They're still sitting and waiting. Okay, one day I will. Let's see. I don't know when it's gonna happen.
Matthew McQueeny
Absolutely. And Kanda were you when you made this change? Were you scared at all about it or did you feel comfortable? Like what was your What were you thinking during the time?
Kanda
I'm not scared about and I was very comfortable doing this like what I am very new to this even though I lived in a village we didn't own any land or something. All everything we bought it recently and I'm very new to this and learning lot
Akshay Sura
so you're learning farming as you're going but you knew that that's something you wanted to do right and in the building as you bought a big piece of land close to close to the place where you stay. So how is that process been like if you're, how did you decide, so a) you bought a piece of land you knew you wanted to farm. How did you go about learning what are you going to plant? How does the season go? How does it start? How does it end? Like how did you start?
Kanda
Yeah, it's like before we decided to move here I always have a list, look into some of the YouTube videos and always have some idea keep watching things and everthing so I always learn things and everything on the video but keep in my mind I want to have something similar to whenever have some video which is very interesting and the thing so I always have in my mind like I want to have something similar set up in my farm and everything
Akshay Sura
Are there other like local farmers who are helping you out do you talk to them to get some guidance or anything of that sort?
Kanda
Yeah, they're quite a lot, everyone is very helping and everything. So you can learn from everyone is like they're not even into school but their common sense right so doing a simple thing we will think always in the way that they'll explain you in very simple way you can do with it and always give tips on how to think or do things. Whenever you, they will teach you, when you are ready to learn they everyone will teach you.
Akshay Sura
Wow So did you already go through I'm assuming you all you've been doing this for like a year and a half or something right like farming. So you've gone through a couple of these cycles I'm sure knowing that you came from the tech background you've probably learned and improved upon it the next time you do it. But right now do you employ other people to help you or is it just solely you like how is it running?
Kanda
No, I employ people like it's not a full time as such. Like I will take one guy's help as a kind of full time so they always committed to work but I will pay only on the work that but always my any work is go to them fast kind of thing. So monthly I'll give some small amount to them as to whether work is there or not. But after that whenever they work I'll pay for them like that. So they will come and help me on the farm but currently what is like I'm doing agriculture I'm turning that land into a farming land like I want to go into farming now. So it's like all pernnial club grows and like a paddy or cotton or it like you know need to be sit there and the entire day to take care of that right. So, once in a paddy means once a couple of days when they are to make watering that paddy field and everything like that. So that sort of maintenance will be there always so only in the sowing season will be very busy and then time of harvesting will be very busy in between it may not have that much tiziano so and also the income all sorts will be like a use paint over the couple of months and then end of that month you may get some lumps, right. So I'm planning something on the permaculture and like farming style like I want to have something daily income and weekly income and monthly income something sort of thing. And it's like yearly or maybe it's like long term like when you go for timber trees and other trees like right so. So firewood trees and everything, whatever. That will be like a loan or the five years that we grow and you have some lump sum, but regular daily incomes maybe from the vegetables and currently my field is full of Play land which is suited for Paddy cultivation, okay, so, so I can grow and can grow vegetables, but the problem is if rain comes it will be fully flooded like because full down right so, so currently I started, today started picking apart so that I can get more sand and they can fill in some area so we can do vegetables there so level, some daily income or even alternative days I can bring vegetables,
Akshay Sura
Basically providing the vegetables to the local local town. So, like a continuous income and then you'll have another part of the farm where you'll have like Paddy or cotton, which is a little bit of long term and then have some plantation so you have a long long term plan as well
Kanda
Yeah, yeah. And also in the pond, I'm planning aquaculture so like a fish and everything so that we'll have every some fish we can in three months or six months and some will go for a year, something like that. I love some that sort of income also, a full year and quarterly incomes also will be there. So yeah, I started planning and doing that work currently, last year I thought of doing it better because of COVID full lock downs and everything I can't move around freely and get things works done. So this year is better.
Matthew McQueeny
Akshay I keep hearing these words and Ani too it sounds a lot like us, right. We do we work in Harvest to keep our time we hydrate the content. You know we do all this but all seriousness Kanda like when you were working in tech, and you're working in this now are there things from your time in tech that make you better at farming that helped you along that figured figured things out for you maybe better than just the the other competitor in farming who just was a farmer
Kanda
How can I say like the basic farmers, right, they may not have technical education or something, but farming need a better planning and design. Okay, without planning you cannot do anything there. So by practice, it become a plan for them right. So they know it's your to always go with the season. If you little delay in your season, you could lose something, it may not be big loss, but it'll be like smaller than usual. Go with the season you have a better profit. So, and some farmers may not have a school education or something, but they know do this month and with before this date and you will have a better things and also the agriculture is very location specific even in the same village, the land on the other side of the river will have a different impact when it rains and the end on this side will have different impacts. So accordingly they will do the cultivation and work. Some people are loving the little higher side of the land, right. So they will take time little the extra time and they do it slowly. But people are on the lower side of the river they can't take that chance. So when rainy season always have plans will pay to play dates. So they are to go with the season.
Matthew McQueeny
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And the one thing I would say is Ani, do you does she ever consult on the farming at all? Like she does in tech?
Anindita
No, I stay far, far away from it. I don't understand anything with farming I struggle in trying to keep a cucumber plant alive in my garden here. So yeah, I'm pretty useless in this and if you ask me to go stand in the sun and just give up in two days.
Kanda
Yeah. The question is like, yeah, be well, what we do in real project planning, they do it without knowingly that is what I'm trying to say. But yeah, this whatever my they still experience, it really helps me do things and plan in better way. But it's like, I'm in the learning mode. So where I get really amazed with the things people do without knowing all this paradigms.
Akshay Sura
And like you said they do it. Because they've done it over a period of time they've learned it from their parents and grandparents so they know hey the rainy season is coming I need to do this. Now that summer is coming I need to do that, right. So I have like a question like in terms of since this is your second year going into it, like what are the challenges you're seeing like just to give you an example water shortages are getting the electric on time in during the summer months for the pump to work to pump the water. Like what are some of the day to day challenges you face and you have to like Oh crap, I gotta get back to the farm to fix it.
Kanda
No I have a land which is having proper water and electricity thing and all so it is not a issue with that and all only in the national column it is time I faced quite last year it is like very highly flooded, right. So all my crops are flooded with water. So that made me a little loss on the other season like part of my plants got spoil that like that. That is the only thing apart from that if it is a proper climatical condition at all. It's a very good land as such like I have whatever I want now. So that is the only thing which because always go with the natural, right. So that is the only factor other than that it's a good thing nothing much difficulty I'm facing as such
Akshay Sura
So like day to day compared to when you were in Bangalore and working in tech right like do you feel a sense of more satisfaction things that you got accomplished at the end of the day and the week end of the month a lot more than you did when you were in tech like is did you achieve what you were looking for when you started farming?
Kanda
Yeah, I'm happy but still I'm not got my plan fully in place so it still it's like sometime you feel low or something like it won't go in the speed what you expect like so it's like you cannot say I want to do it in before this 31st of may. Say it's all depend on people and weather and all this thing right so it may not happen in this year only sometime it maybe takes couple of like I want to do this digging the pond last year because if I had to do it before the rainy season otherwise I can't do it. So then I had to wait for the next summer to, if miss this chance then I had to wait for the next summer to do that. So it's like almost a minimum six months to eight months I had to wait for things so that other things sometime would be delay. So that makes you miss also because we are not know everything well sometime because of the lack of knowledge also sometimes we miss things, like even today is when happened like digging the pond it's usually they'll make some bank on the 2 sides of the pond after that they'll take the soil and put it to somewhere else. So I'm not aware of that little bit. So I asked other vehicles to come to take the sand and everything, so they came but first what we managed somehow to make them to see the today so after the plan instead of doing today I'm doing that work tomorrow so kind of the little planning and the little experiences little every learning is there always
Matthew McQueeny
How do you learn to, because you brought up the flooding right a little bit and so that's one of these you know, what do they call them almost an act of God right there's just nothing you can you can really do about it but what is it like when that happens and you're just you feel kind of helpless to it right?
Kanda
Yeah, that's what I'm last year that this sort of flood happens once in 10 years or something like that it won't be the regular thing. So I'm new to that land and last year when the I saw that how much flood comes in. So every day go I can't do anything I can not even enter into my farm, but still like I go to that road and come because I want to see what is the water level it goes that much. So now what I'm doing as part of the digging the pond, so I'm making my land the pathway and like a bank for that particular land. So I'm making it a little higher so that a flood won't enter in my land directly. It will go on the channels kind of things. So I'm putting much effort and making as much as possible to avoid that. So now previously, it was very low banks for that to my paddy field, so easily water enters into it. So I'm trying to avoid that. Now. That is the sort of things you can avoid. But if it is too much,
Akshay Sura
you can only test it the next time if the same thing happens. It's like
Matthew McQueeny
traffic traffic coming to a site, right? Like, yeah, no, this is good. But if we go viral, and like a million people are on the site,
Akshay Sura
nice. So you had mentioned something, which I knew from the things and Anindita shares, terms of you guys traveling, I saw that both, like a picture of two bikes with everything loaded, which is awesome. Like, I remember I drove once from I forget, I think we shipped our bikes from Hyderabad to Bombay, I think and we drove like, basically, it was like a company outing, we had like four bikes, one couple and a bunch of guys, the owner and his wife, actually, and they were up for it. So we shipped the bikes to I think Bombay and from Bombay, we went to Pruney and Lonavala. It was just gorgeous, gorgeous. And we were pretty young, I was like 20, 21. So I can see the the appeal of riding a bike and visiting things. I never pack that much on my back. By the way, it was just a backpack. But how do you guys plan these things? Like, obviously, you guys have the travel bug, you want to go you want to do things? But how does how does one plan a bike trip with all of that luggage in the back and go places
Anindita
I did all of that. This one trip we had actually done was it was one of the longest trips we did, we took a sabbatical off of work, we both working in the same company at the time. And this was after we came back from U.S, I think it's a I always had this thing I wanted to do a bike trip. So but I didn't know how to ride a bike and I did not have a bike. So it started with that then went and bought the bike and I started learning how to ride a bicycle on a 200 kg bike, which is saying something in India. So it was an Enfield. And then after that we had I had made all these big excel sheet plans and everything that yeah day 1 we are going to drive from here to here. It's this many kilometers and then we will sleep there. So we did all these plans for like, I think 45 days or something. And there was this huge like, hey, there's this big plan and everything we started literally on day two, the plan fell apart because the roads were bad or something like that. And we didn't make it to where we had planned and stuff like that. So day two onwards, okay, so you can plan as much as you want but then it's it's gonna work only as much as it works. So what we ended up doing was -
Kanda
Yeah, she planned in because we travel quite a lot in the U.S and she go with me Google Map and they are from this mile this many miles in this many hours right? So that sort of calculation said she did for biking. So that's -
Akshay Sura
basically what you're saying is it doesn't work in India because it's a little bit different the different challenges
Kanda
Not only that, it's like a different challenges right. It's it's a bike ride fast. Today, we went on a full highway. So we get to make almost 400 kilometers in a day or something. We are good. And after that we have a sightseeing plan plus it's a maybe a village road or maybe a small countryside roads, right. So maybe small condition of the road may be good or bad. Google will say can reach in this many minutes. But it may not happen in the small roads. So sometimes we spend extra time and sightseeing. Sometimes we play it thought like he'll go and come in two hours or something it may take for us. So similar things will happen. Right? So all the plans after one day could change.
Matthew McQueeny
And Aren't you so hungry at night after those trips like you must have a great feast.
Anindita
At that point, really just eat whatever and go to sleep. We decided not to ride after sunset because we were on bikes and it's not I mean you you will get different condition roads all over India so and I was still green with riding because I didn't have that much experience that was actually my first bike trip and we ended up doing 50 days we went all around India we went from Bangalore we started went to Mumbai and then spent majority of our time in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where Rajasthan is very well known for tourism Madhya Pradesh is actually very underrated. I think so, so, we went, we spent a lot of time there and really like that and then went up north till where, I think Matera, we didn't go to Delhi, we went to Mathura and stuff. And then again, came East, West Bengal, and then Andhra and back so it was 50 days, 10,800 kilometres. And almost I think 19 states are so. After first few days, I think we just got into like a rhythm, get up in the morning, pack your bag, and there was one one backpack each and we like packed whatever stuff we need and that and tied to the back of our bikes. Let's go it was fun. After those few days, it's just, it's nice.
Akshay Sura
Do you still have the bike do you still ride Anindita?
Anindita
My bike I just sold it before coming here. Because I was not really using it that much. And we just got a new car at that time. So I was it was the battery kept dying. And then I kept replacing the batteries. I decided if I go for another trip, I'll just buy anothe bike, he still has his that's fine
Matthew McQueeny
in your travels when you came to when you traveled to America. Was that the first time you both traveled here when you came together?
Anindita
No
Matthew McQueeny
No, was Memphis, Memphis was a long one, though. You said right? Memphis, Tennessee.
Anindita
Yeah, Memphis was the longest one. Yeah.
Matthew McQueeny
What were your what were your recollections of America? And maybe Memphis in particular?
Anindita
Yeah, great fun, for sure. The good thing was, so this was some somewhat of a pilot implementation of a project that we had gone for was with a bank. And so we initially went for three months, and then it got extended for another two ones. And we worked really hard because there were three of us who had gone for the pilot implementation. And we would like, I mean, you know, Americans are usually out the door by five o'clock or something, four o'clock in the evening. We will sitting and working till eight o'clock in the evening, every day, Monday to Friday. And then what he would do is after that Friday evening, at like nine o'clock, we just take the car out the door, and we drive and keep driving, I think in like three months or something we ended up clocking 9000 miles on the rentals. And kept driving, kept driving went as far as it will South Beach, Miami, once I remember we keyed in to the GPS, our return direction, it was like 1000 miles to destination. Come, it's gonna be fun, let's go. And we'd be back on that Friday night, and sometimes Monday morning and come back to the office and start chugging coffee and entire Monday. So we do that at work. So that's what we did most of that five months. And I remember when we were about to return from there, we were speaking to some of our colleagues and we went to Florida like three times went to Pensacola and over there and then went to South Beach. And I think we visited around six or seven states at that time itself. So, you know, wherever we could reach within a weekend from there we went, we covered every single thing and like we kept seeing you in office till eight o'clock in the evening on Fridays, whenever you go everywhere. That count, that was a good, really nice experience. Anything that we could go and see we went and saw in that five months.
Matthew McQueeny
Wow, that's amazing. I mean, the Memphis does, it is close to a lot of places people don't realize so. My last question, and then Akshay is gonna have the last his last question. We've never had. We've never had a couple on before this the first time we had a couple so why don't you like we have this game here or had this game in America the Newlywed Game? Why don't you tell us how you how you each met? What you really, you know, saw in each other and liked in each other.
Akshay Sura
Right? I can go first. Yeah.
Matthew McQueeny
As women always the woman always does, right.
Anindita
He's more than appeasing. So yeah, we met at work. I actually apparently did meet him when we were in India, but I literally flew out in a week from then I don't recall much of that. But then he came in and joined at Memphis at you know, soon after. So that's when we actually met there were three of us and we were working very closely. is like I mentioned, you know, long days sitting and working the whole time. I think what I liked about him right then was I am you I know you've not talked with me directly so you don't know yet whatever really controlling person I like to have. So I would keep planning these trips every day. We're doing this we are going here we are going to go and see this. Yeah, sure. Come, let's go. So I really like that about him he is like, hey, whatever come. He is up for any you know harebrained ideas I come up with everything he's like yeah okay, come we'll do it. Even the bike thing is, okay, this girl doesn't know how to ride a bike has never, she doesn't have a bike. And she's like, Can we take a sabbatical and go for a tour? Sure. I love to buy a bike. And literally within weeks, he also bought a bike for me, but this bike it is, but I was really happy with that seeing that, you know, someone's up for anything that you come up with. And they don't say, Okay, you've lost your mind. You're like, Okay, fine. You've lost your mind. What's the problem? It sounds like fun. Let's go. So I think that was something that was really nice about it.
Matthew McQueeny
What about you Kanda?
Kanda
Yeah. Same thing, you know? Really very good. Travel buddy, initially, then we become very good friends. And that made us like, it's initially it's like, we thought, okay, we started traveling for last six years. And we are very good friend. We both trust each other like, thing kind of thing. So then we were talking like, why can't we become a parter and that can continue? It'd be nice. Right? So then we thought of that way. We can we got married. Now things going on.
Akshay Sura
I love the giggles, you still have still have that giggling which is awesome. How long have you guys been married for? Four years, I can audit income through four years. That's pretty cool. You're out of the initial newlywed phase. So that's kind of nice that you're still giggly at four years. Hopefully you'll make it to 50 years. So that's awesome. So my final? My final question to you Kanda, not Anindita, maybe I'll get to Anindita in a second. What would you advise your 25 year old self Kanda?
Kanda
Whatever you dream, go for it.
Akshay Sura
Nice. Yeah. Short and to succinct. Same question to Anindita. You've you've done the traveling you've done the poor dragging Kanda around everywhere
Matthew McQueeny
to South Beach, on a weekend.
Akshay Sura
Yeah. And in India, poor guy just puts up with you. Right. Like, what would you advise your 25 year old self?
Anindita
Just to add on to that was not just a weekend, I think it was Memorial weekend.
Matthew McQueeny
That's this weekend here
Anindita
Yeah, we were like stuck in traffic forever trying to get out of South Beach. That was fun too you rarely get to see that kind of traffic outside of India. So anyways. Yeah, I guess advice. I really have no regrets. I've never had any regrets. I've always done exactly what I wanted to do. So do my 25 year old self, I just say that you have to have the right idea. Just continue always do what you think is right and what you want to do. Because that's the only way you'll get this.
Akshay Sura
Nice, and with that, we'll wrap it up. Thank you both. I know it's pretty late for you guys. I don't know if that was another thing I wanted to ask actually, I'll ask it. You guys have the oddest timings I've ever seen people have especially people in India right? So is that because of the farming thing is that because naturally you guys like to get the most out of the day. So you just split your day in a way where you work as well as do regular things and just maximize your day. Why do you guys why are you guys up at like, what time is it right now? Like two in the morning? 3 in the Morning?
Kanda
No, midnight, 11:30. Yeah, we always have some evening break time kind of things. Like I always have some I start the day early, and I'll break some nap or something power nap at a time, then it'll go a little late. So again, I do that. So
Anindita
I actually blame Americans. That's how this trend started. We started, we were working as IT professionals, you keep working with Americans all the time. And then you get into this mode where you have calls in the evening later later in the evening. So we kind of got used to it that I think at that point only kind of started that. You start your day late. And so I start my day late and late when he starts early. And because of me, he has to end late. So he kind of takes a break in between and a nap and everything. But I think it's the staying up late part, it kind of got into that with our I.T careers itself at that point.
Akshay Sura
Nice. All right. That's that's a decent answer. I'll let you go. But there's, there's probably more to unpack at some point. But thanks again for spending your time with us on the podcast. We really appreciate it. And it's a really fun story to do something which gives you that satisfaction, right? So I hope you keep learning with the farming and I know you will just with your brain. And then maybe in a couple of years, you'll be in a spot where you can tell us Yes, I'm happy with happy with where I am. I still have a lot to learn. But I reached a level which there's no flooding in the in the farm. I'm able to do short, medium and long term goals for the farm. So looking forward to an update.
Kanda
Yeah, sure and yeah, hopefully the sooner we'll come up with our farm guesthouse, and we'll invite all you guys to visit us and have fun time when you are in India.
Akshay Sura
That's awesome. I'm looking forward to it. I have always wanted to visit Pondicherry. I've never. I've gone to Bangalore I used to stay quite a bit during the summers in Madras because my cousin's still lived there. But we've never been to Pondicherry. So I'm looking forward to it.
Kanda
You're very welcome.
Akshay Sura
Alright, bye guys. Have a good rest of your morning I should say. Go to sleep. Thank you so much.
Outro
Thank you for entering the Konaverse. We hope these discussions gave you something to think about, helped you learn something new and provided a window into someone else's story. Everyone's story is worthy and important. Until next time, remember to be fair, be kind and never settle.