Travelling on business to small towns stretching from Ratnagiri to Trivandrum, Hemant Chhabra, now 63, would always be touched by the hospitality and cultural traditions of Indians, before returning to Mumbai and a gnawing claustrophobia.
In 1987, he bought a plot of farm land in Palghar as a space to decompress, about 120 km from Mumbai. The plot of land had a single tree on it. Slowly, he relocated there with his family and set about greening the area.
In 1998, Hemant began to organise children’s summer camps, mainly as company for his own children who were being home-schooled on the farm. Now a 25-year tradition, the camps continue to be sold out a couple of hours after dates are announced. “Kids are so happy here, they look at the farm as a forest,” Hemant said.
At a time when nobody knew of agro-tourism, he started ‘Sangeeta and Hemant’s Farm’ as a getaway spot close to the city. Around 2010, having decided to close down a business named ‘Hideout’ that supplied leather goods, Hemant found the brand name handy for his getaway where visitors could spend a day or a weekend in the lap of nature, living in cool, non-airconditioned rooms and sharing the dining space with the family.
The Chhabras later registered with MTDC as an agro-tourism operator, and now offer consulting to aspiring entrepreneurs on agro tourism, farm stays, home stays, etc.
“The secret is consistency,” said Hemant, about how a farm with a single tree is now an abundant source of fruits and vegetables and other produce all grown on natural farming principles. From six pineapple heads he picked up from a waste bin, Hideout now has 3,000 plants in 12 years; several varieties of mangoes and other fruit, recently planted exotic fruits from South Asia and more.
Always socially conscious, the Chhabras also ran a bicycle project to give bicycles to deserving children from the locality who had to walk 12 km to school. Hideout also hosts yoga, photography and other workshops, where participants are able to immerse themselves in the learning process.
“It is not just the natural beauty that draws you in here,” said yoga practitioner Girish Bhatt who has conducted 70 workshops at Hideout since the pandemic. “The space, the food, the fruits you get here, everything is full of the values the owners have, their kindness and their willingness to share this experience with others.”
The seven-acre Hideout is also home to lentil fields, vegetable patches, wild trees; their thatch is from local leaves; they practise permaculture; and now try to plant in every single square metre of space. “Everything comes from nature,” Hemant said. “We live on salads, we eat and grow fresh, and we also hold food festivals here.”
One challenge for Hideout is climate change—last year saw a brief hailstorm in Palghar, an unprecedented experience. “The local tribal people were eating ice from the ground,” Hemant said. There was unseasonal rain during the mango flowering season, a somewhat cool summer, and then a scorching heatwave that burnt their pepper vines.
