We're building Earthness — slowly, with care.

Earthness™ is a farm initiative coming up in Somasagara village, Nelamangala, Bengaluru Rural District. Built on the principles of permaculture and ecological design, this is an attempt to retrace steps to a life closer to the ways of the land. At its simplest level, the happiness one finds in being connected to the land, that is Earthness™.

The land itself, the culture it represents, the communities that thrive around it, and every living form that makes it what it is — Earthness™ is a celebration of it all. We, Chaitali and Rahul are building this, slowly, carefully, surely. Follow our journey as we design and build a resilient, self-sufficient farm that honors nature’s plan.

"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home." — Gary Snyder

As a base, Earthness™ is coming up in Somasagara village, Nelamangala, Bengaluru Rural District. As a community, Earthness™ will exist across multiple frontiers — online, experiential and philosophical.

"You do not choose land. It chooses you."

Earthness™ began taking shape when a friend took Chaitali and Rahul to Dee Mandala farms in Nelamangala, Bengaluru Rural District. The land simply called out to us. As did its owner, and now dear friend and guide, Dee. For us two siblings, who had been looking for some land for years with little success, it was pretty much an instant decision. The rest is a story that is writing itself.

Chaitali spent more than a decade as a Customer Services leader in the IT sector before founding Taantraa®, Bengaluru’s first vegan home baking outfit — a venture that has since been written about in Femina, Vogue and elsewhere, and that found a following among food lovers, nutritionists, and people navigating diabetes or gluten allergies. As a fauji kid, she grew up on far-flung army bases, and her childhood familiarity with land and weather and small wild things has shaped how she thinks about Earthness™.

Here, she is the one creating the experiences — the stays, the visits, the small gatherings — ones that will open soon to all.

Rahul has spent three decades in advertising — most of them at Rediffusion, where he eventually served as Joint President and Chief Creative Officer. Both at home and at international festivals, his work has been recognised generously enough that he no longer keeps count. He stepped away in 2021 to start Flibbr® Consulting, a gloablly awarded brand consulting firm he now runs with co-founder Hari Ganesh. He calls himself, with characteristic understatement, a nature lover, urban farmer and wildlife trainee.

This is where his long-held instinct to live more closely with the land finally gets to be the work, not the side of it.