Using the greens to drive away workplace blues

Employees of various firms at Manyata tech park growing their own vegetables on campus, as part of the ‘Urban Green’.

On a warm Monday afternoon, somewhere between tall buildings housing multinational giants, a young techie comes out of her office, walks into a long green patch, collects a bunch of spinach leaves and goes back to office, the greens wrapped in a newspaper. Soon, more employees come out, checking on some plants and plucking out vegetables and greens, before returning to their desks.

This is part of ‘Urban Green’, an initiative of Embassy Manyata Business Park to help employees de-stress by involving themselves in some gardening or farming.

As many as 70 employees already own their own little vegetable gardens on the three large plots in the 110-acre park, and the programme has over 400 more employees waiting for their turn, said Kiran. D, Horticulture Manager, Embassy Services Pvt. Ltd. Embassy Group plans to allot one plot for every building in the coming months. “We provide them with everything they need, including manure that we compost here. If they are busy or absent, our department staff steps in to look after [the plants],” he said.

Those who have already experimented with their green fingers are hooked. Shreshta Kumar Sahu, 32, a senior platform engineer, said he comes back to his little farm even during the weekends, bringing his wife along. “The last time, we got so much fenugreek leaves that we had to distribute it to our neighbours. Earlier, a break from work meant coffee. I have stopped those coffee breaks now and come here instead,” he said.

Apart from being a de-stressing exercise, the activity has had a deeper impact on him. “My perspective towards food has changed since I started this, as I respect the process of growing food. The struggle of farmers in places such as Mandya has started making sense to me now. I have even managed to get a group of children in my apartment to start planting saplings,” he said.

For Sachin Pandhare, a 37-year-old software engineer, it has been an opportunity to get back to an activity he found no time for after childhood. “It is a completely different activity compared to our work, so it helps. In fact, when I come down for my afternoon walks after lunch, I show my plants to my colleagues, who are also now inspired to register for their plots,” he said.