The interviews and reporting for this story were conducted in 2024.

While working through deadlines sitting at his giant Bengaluru office, Hariom Nautiyal decided this was not the life he aspired to live. Having grown up in the quaint Barkot village in Dehradun, he deeply missed his carefree rural life.

“I disliked the idea of rat race, deadlines, and fear of losing jobs during recessions. We lived in constant fear. We even feared posting pictures from vacations. I did not want this life,” he says in conversation with The Better India.

He shares that it was during the recession of 2009 that he had landed a coveted job as a web developer – a moment of great joy for him. However, the cut-throat competition and the fast-paced city life left him yearning for a more fulfilling existence.

“While living in the city, my greatest treasure could have only been purchasing a 3BHK but I wouldn’t have lived a full life. I wanted to move back home,” he adds.

Hariom worked as a team lead when he finalised his decision to move back in 2013. Certainly, he says, it was not an easy decision to pause a handsome monthly salary, leave metro cities behind and start any other work from scratch, especially in a village.

However, his bold move resulted in his own business venture named ‘Dhanya Dhenu’ which sells a wide variety of dairy products such as milk, ghee, paneer, curd, mawa, along with 15 kinds of pickles and candies, and at least 20 varieties of ice creams.

Here’s how he has established a multi-crore empire despite staunch opposition.

From city office to cowshed

When Hariom came back and broke the news of quitting the........

© The Better India