Hi, I’m Varun.

I want to be your co-author and collaborator. I’m a wholesome mercenary. I work in pairs and super-teams to solve specific problems, run experiments, build communities, and create unlikely friendships. Like Paul Erdős without the mathematical genius, the non-attachment to material possessions and access to meth.

Profession

I’m a farmer and an agroecologist, with an atypical combination of adversarial and cooperative views when it comes to “nature”.

I’m the co-founder of Humble Earth Farms. We’re working with agroeconomic models and figuring out where, when and for whom they function best. The idea was conceived from our experiences working on our farm, Humble Earth (see below). My primary goal is world-building i.e I see this business as a conduit to build lives and foster research, innovation, development, and an aesthetic vision across the region.

My Farm

My family farm, Humble Earth, is in a beautiful spot in the Nilgiri Hills, South India. We’re somewhere in the intersection of commercial organic farming, agroforesty, permaculture, just-kinda-winging-it-culture, and maybe something entirely new.

The farm lands are located in a unique microclimate of the Nilgiris, which we are harnessing to enable cultivation of a wide variety of subtropical and temperate plants using sustainable farming principles. We’re cultivating fresh produce, herbs, tea, flowers, essential oils & hydrosols. And soon, indigenous Nilgiri Flora.

And all it is a first step to something much bigger.

Tangential Hustle  

You can hire me to train your team in the full set of agricultural practices, prepare farm and landscape maintenance cycles and quick reference guides for it unique to your place, and for one-off consults on specific topics in agriculture. Just put “Agri Consult” in the subject of your email when you get in touch.

I want to help you be profitable, restorative or self-sustaining in the way that works for you.

Side Hustles

Content Marketing Trainer

I love working with content and being a trainer, so that’s my “side hustle” during my free time.

I’m interested in individuals and small, bootstrapped organizations. The internet gives you direct access to your customers and unprecedented niches, and I want to help you utilize that. 

I will teach you everything I know and build a team inside of your company that can handle any challenge thrown at them. 

Are you an underdog, a scrappy young startup or a whistleblower, a David going against a Goliath that’s drowning you in search results and aggressive marketing? I can help you beat them by overhauling your entire approach, which will include the whitest-hat content-driven SEO and guerrilla marketing money can buy.

My charges (short-term): Rs.5000/day, in which i will not simply advise; I handhold and train you or your team in one of your active projects from start to finish. You can hire me for a day, a few days at a time, or a weekend.

Conversational English

Apart from that, I can teach you conversational, real-world English. I’m not a professional English teacher, I’d like to do it just because I enjoy it! 🙂 

This Blog

This place is for primers and articles on some of my main interests: complex systems, aesthetics and urbanism, history, religion, language, culture, science, technology, India and the east, and the natural world. 

It’s a work-in-progress. I’ve picked up and created a lot of things in bits— and sometimes substantial pieces— over the years. I’ve been spending the past two years filling in the blanks and putting it all together. I’ve been insanely procrastinating.

Collections of information, certain drafts, or specific things that may be useful to autodidacts or other professionals will be in the resources page.

My primary interests at the moment are materials science, biospheres, systems design, mass nutrition, logistics and urban and rural aesthetics. 

I think in stacks, scales, bounds, intersections and their emergent phenomena; these help me learn to make decisions both despite and inspired by complexity and mystery.

My Story

I spent an entire decade and a half of my life as lone wolf obsessed with an number of ideas– some wrong, some esoteric, some chronically depressing, some prescient and original. I learned a lot from it, especially about how motivation and communities work and how ideas grow and translate into the real world.  

I realized that there are far too many things to do and a lot of incredible people to do them with. That oriented me towards seeking collaborators, rather than workplaces or fantasies.  

Apart from a few exceptions, I follow a much milder and bounded variant of radical honesty, that doesn’t involve others who didn’t consent to it.

When it comes to you, I don’t believe in brutal or radical anything. Whether its work or a personal equation, I like to learn to pick up on cues and common goals and practice kindness. 

I’m guided by dharma, in its most uncodified, nebulous, politically-agnostic sense.

Collaboration

If you’re working on anything scientific, linguistic, classical, journalistic, or historical, especially if it’s a book or a public resource, I’d love to collab. I will curate, corroborate, and deduce till my aching fascia spew acrid smoke.

If you’re based in the Nilgiris, get in touch, I’d love to meet you! 

Contact

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Goodreads. You can also reach me by email.

I’m also on Buy Me A Coffee, if you’re feeling generous. 

Important Collated Links here: https://linktr.ee/kladhest