Why I Quit My Job To Build Mud Houses

She left her cushy job in Delhi to help conserve the environment. Now, Shagun Singh happily makes mud houses in Uttarakhand.

Transcript

00:00I needed to start something new where I could contribute to the society and to the planet

00:25and to the environment and to myself.

00:45I started learning new skills, I started picking up new skills, I started learning farming,

00:49I started volunteering in different places, I started learning how to build my own house

00:53with natural materials.

00:54They thought I am going to try it for some time and then probably go back to my career,

01:21which within a year or two, I believe everybody knew that's not going to happen and this is

01:25what I want to do.

01:26Now, form is just one of the several natural building techniques that you can use to build

01:47your home.

01:48Form is nothing but essentially a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water.

01:55Once we mix it all together, we just straight away start building a wall system with it.

02:00You can build load-bearing homes or non-load-bearing homes and you can go a couple of floors up

02:06as well.

02:07So, in this mud home, you'll see there's plastering going on simultaneously over here with the

02:12same mix with which the home has been built and then we've made a nice lime paint, chunna

02:19So, we've just made a cream shade and there is a painting that is going on with it.

02:24So, you could achieve anything you want, whatever color schemes, whatever shades, however you

02:29want to build your home can be done.

02:49There's a mindset that we have that mud homes, stone homes, lime homes, it's meant for the

02:55poor.

02:56I decided to build homes which can become statements.

03:00So, let's make these homes so beautiful, so creative, so gorgeous that it's a pleasure

03:08to come to one and this whole stigma that is associated with it as a poor man's home

03:13goes away from it.

03:27So, when you move out of the city into a remote rural area, there are some typical things

03:34that come with it.

03:35And so, I had a very steep learning curve starting all the way from how to purchase

03:39land which I had never done before and that to farmland, how to set up an NGO, for example,

03:46how to get the locals involved, how to form a bond with them.

04:06I knew I wanted to make this into a lifestyle.

04:08It wasn't just about proving a point.

04:10It was a decision that I had already taken.

04:13I was convinced that this is the way forward.

04:38The most important thing is how determined are you about what you are doing and how convinced

04:44are you yourself about what you are doing.