“I used to throw food away without a second thought. It never occurred to me where it came from or what it took to grow it,” confesses sixteen-year-old Lila Ramaswami, a student at Shiv Nadar School in Gurugram.

“Everything changed once I learnt about the journey of food — how seeds sprout, how soil and water matter, how nature is connected. It made me see food and the environment completely differently.”

This revelation is part of a revolution unfolding in schools across Delhi and the surrounding National Capital Region (NCR). Here, children are beginning to reconnect with something many didn’t even realise they had lost — their bond with the natural world.

In an age where cities are growing taller and technology moves faster than ever, the simple truths of where our food comes from, how seasons shape our lives, or why a tiny insect matters to a plant’s survival have started to slip away.

For many young people, these once-intimate understandings have become distant, even invisible, buried beneath supermarket shelves and busy schedules. But that is beginning to change.

In this evolving landscape, an initiative named SowGood has taken root. Based in Delhi NCR, it is an educational programme that has reached over 72,000 children, changing how they learn by connecting them directly to the soil.

But the initiative was not born from a traditional academic approach or government policy. It was born from the vision of one woman who stepped away from the corporate bustle to create something meaningful.

The woman who swapped advertising for earth and meaning

Pragati Chaswal spent over a decade in the high-octane world of advertising in Delhi, building campaigns for agencies including Lintas and McCann. Her last stint was at a startup called UCP Direct. By all external measures, she was excelling in her career.

“The creativity was rewarding professionally,” she tells The Better India, “but personally, I felt a void. I kept thinking — what am I building? Who is it helping?” As deadlines mounted and brand narratives grew more abstract, a deeper urge for meaning began to stir within her.

In 2013, she took what she thought would be a short sabbatical — a chance to pause, breathe, and recalibrate. But that break ended up stretching into something more eye-opening.

“It was the first time in years I stepped back to observe my life,” she........

© The Better India