Life may not be a bed of roses, but a piece of land can be if you put your heart and soul into it.

“Life is not a bed of roses” no matter how you deal with it…is a universal truth. But your hard work can certainly turn a barren land into a rose bed…beautiful colourful roses. Of course such a beautiful flower swaying away with the wind is an amazing sight.

This is about a man who used to be a mechanic of luxury cars. He worked in New Delhi as a mechanic for 7 years. A sudden change in the mind set made him learn farming with such a passion that he turned a piece of barren land into a bed of roses.

Amrish Menaria hails from Kharsan in Vallabhnagar Tehsil of Udaipur district. Last year at the age of 35, Amrish turned to farming though he had this passion since childhood. He says that he was always interested in doing something different and not the regular technological or brain storming work that everyone does. He left for Delhi in 2001 after completing 10th standard. He earned around 60k a month repairing luxury cars, but that wasn’t enough. He wasn’t satisfied with his work.

Not happy being away from his native place and his own people, he left Delhi in 2008 and returned to Kharsan. Since they had enough of parental property, he did traditional farming on his land for almost 7 years. He noticed that around 1 acre of his land was completely barren. This is when he thought of cultivating roses. As on date, he is earning around 30k per month from his roses. The other parts of land where the family sows grain and vegetables are also generating good income. Above all, the thought of leaving family and village doesn’t even crop up in his mind.

This barren land where he now grows roses, used to be taken care of by his grandparents and the rabi and kharif crop used to fetch them a good money, informed Champalal Menaria, father of Amrish. Last year, on his visit to a nearby village Chikarda, Amrish saw rose farming which attracted him to such an extent that he learnt rose farming from the villagers and started preparing his own land for cultivation. He planted almost 4000 rose stems and used drip system for providing water to the plants. In a year, the stems grew upto 4 to 5 feet in height. Now these plants bear 15 kilograms of rose every day.

His average daily income from the roses is around 1000 rupees. People visiting temples of the nearby areas buy his flowers regularly. An expense of 2000 rupees is done on chemical spray to keep the crop free of insects and bugs. The task of transporting the flowers from village to town is done by family members. His son and nephew support him all the time.

Some vegetables have also been planted near the rose field which are free from chemicals, hence good in taste.