For as long as I can remember, I struggled with weight management and unhealthy eating habits. For most of my life, I was obese and felt disconnected from the food I ate, a common experience for many of us who grow up in cities, far removed from the farms that sustain us.
My journey took me from New Delhi to the US and Australia for a 13-year corporate career as an engineer, but the feeling of being a stranger to my own nourishment never truly left. This post is about the unexpected path that led me back home—not just to India, but to a deeper understanding of food, community, and purpose.
"Food has always been central to my life, but for years I didn’t fully understand its impact or its origins."
Long before I ever thought about starting a business, my journey began with a single, jarring piece of information. In 2016, I came across an article highlighting the absurd paradox of our modern world: we produce enough food to feed everyone, yet hunger is rising while we waste mountainous amounts of what we grow.
It sparked a deeper curiosity and a determination to change my own relationship with food. I began to question what I was eating, where it came from, and why our global food system was so broken. The mission was born not from a desire to be an entrepreneur, but from a need to address a problem I could no longer ignore.
My first attempt at finding a solution wasn't in a lab or a boardroom, but in my own living room. In 2017, while living in an apartment in Indianapolis that had no balcony, my engineering instincts kicked in. I began researching food systems and discovered hydroponics and aeroponics—methods of growing plants without soil.
I bought a small, off-the-shelf system and immediately started sketching out bigger, better designs. The experiment taught me a crucial lesson: these controlled-environment systems could drastically cut land and water use compared to traditional farming. This technical foundation is what eventually allowed us to become efficient microgreens suppliers in Delhi.
My perspective continued to shift as I moved cities and countries. I started volunteering in community kitchens in Seattle and later at community farms in Sydney. In these spaces, I met a new kind of entrepreneur—people who were building social businesses that combined a clear purpose with a sustainable livelihood.
Seeing people successfully merge their principles with their work reshaped my entire definition of a successful career. This inspiration became the blueprint for Greensवाले. I didn’t just want to be a business owner; I wanted us to be among the best microgreens wholesalers or growers in Delhi India, fulfilling the "lived value" of impact by ensuring nutrient-dense food reaches every table.
By 2025, after 13 years abroad, I felt ready to bring my experiences home to India. But my return was about confronting a national problem I had come to understand with new urgency: India's "quiet crisis" of nutritional insecurity.
Decades of intensive farming have led to a catastrophic decline in the nutritional value of our staple foods.
Research shows that over the last 50 years, the zinc content in rice has decreased by 33% and iron by 27%.
Widespread soil degradation has left our national NPK ratio severely imbalanced.
As a microgreens supplier in Delhi, my mission became data-driven: to help bridge the nutritional gap caused by soil degradation and prolonged supply chains.
Returning to India, I created Greensवाले—an urban farm in New Delhi dedicated to growing hydroponic microgreens like Broccoli, Radish, Amaranth, and Arugula, and delivering them fresh within hours of harvest.
This venture is the culmination of everything I've learned. It’s an engineer's solution to a systemic problem, using technology to grow food sustainably and shorten the distance between farm and table. It’s more than just a business; it’s an extension of my own journey to find a more meaningful connection to what sustains us.
"For me, Greensवाले is not just a business but the continuation of a lifelong journey: a way to live by my values, reconnect people with their food, and help build healthier communities."
Looking back, my path from a corporate engineer to an urban farmer was driven by a simple, universal need: to understand and improve my relationship with food. My journey taught me that reconnecting with our food is a solvable problem. It starts by asking: what is one small step you can take to bridge the gap between your plate and the source of your nourishment?