How farm stays in India are turning bed-rotting travellers into hard-working farmhands

Social media may romanticise these pastoral activities, but there’s no denying that they are messy and gruelling. “I love the element of suffering when on holiday. The relaxation you experience afterwards feels like a great reward,” says Suman Sukumar, founder of Bengaluru-based socially responsible travel company, Knowhere Travel. Recently, he and his wife spent two days prepping fields for crop-sowing at Yangsum Heritage Farm near Rinchenpong, Sikkim. “Chopping grass and removing weeds was back-breaking work But you feel this intense connection with the earth.” They later reused the field waste as cattle fodder and helped milk the cows. “Watching the milk being churned into butter and buttermilk, which we enjoyed at mealtimes, made me really appreciate the fruits of our labour.”

While not everyone opts for strenuous work, Yangsum’s owner, Thendup Tashi Bhutia, says guests are often curious. The seven-guest room property set on Bhutia’s 40-acre mountain farm was remodelled from his 200-year-old family farmhouse, and offers hands-on activities like ploughing the fields with an ox-drawn or machine-powered till, feeding the cows and goats, cooking traditional Sikkimese dishes like stinging nettle soup and foraging for medicinal herbs. “People are drawn to our place because they want to escape from their stress, be close to nature and experience a slow rural lifestyle. Not go to another city with traffic and noise.”

“From pollution to processed foods, there is increased anxiety about the poor quality of life in cities,” Joshi adds. This fear of the artificial extends to technology and AI reducing our memory, patience and problem-solving skills. “People seek these experiences because they want something more real. They want to get out of this trap of convenience and predictability,” says Sukumar.