The best designs aren’t seen; they’re felt in the lives they improve.
From making the tiniest unnoticeable changes to reimagining urban spaces, the scope of design spans across industries, disciplines, and everyday life. It holds the potential to influence behavior, drive innovation, and create meaningful impact.
To me, design is about problem-solving driven by empathy, purpose, and sustainability. But that understanding didn’t come all at once; it’s been shaped by various experiences over the years. One that stands out is a school field trip to an Organo project that left a lasting impact; an experience that eventually led me to intern with them years later.
I’d always had a knack for looking beyond the obvious and finding creative ways to bring ideas to life. However, it wasn’t until one particular experience that I saw the potential of where innovative design and an idea could lead and it was an experience I still remember to this day.
I don’t remember exactly how old I was at the time, maybe 12 or 13, it was a school field trip to the Organo Naandi project, with my class of around 40 energetic kids and just two brave adults at war trying to manage our madness. I look back and remember the giant bio-pool that dwarfed our tiny bodies, the massive farmland that seemed like it went on forever, the open-air, Alfresco where we ate our lunch that day and of course the homes that made Organo Naandi feel like a world of its own.
Experiencing sustainable living and design firsthand left me spellbound. I remember clinging to every word of the discussion we had with our guide; how each home was solar powered, how residents engaged in organic farming just a few steps from their front doors, and how fish manure was repurposed as fertilizer for the plants growing on the premises. As I walked through Naandi’s landscape, I was captivated by how seamlessly innovation and nature coexisted in a way that I believed was only theoretically possible.
I remember coming home that evening and going on and on to my parents about everything. A while after the field trip, I dragged them back to Naandi with me to experience it all over again.
As I grew up, I cycled through a variety of dream career choices; marine biologist, architect, veterinarian, never giving much thought to Organo and simply going along with the flow of life. Towards the end of high school, I found myself increasingly drawn to the intersection of design and business management. I was fortunate to find a college major that allowed me to pursue both in a single package. That’s when things started to click; I discovered a genuine passion for researching and building projects that were innovative, socially conscious, environmentally driven, and rooted in empathy and purpose. Throughout this time, Organo kept popping up here and there, often through my parents, who had become big fans of their initiatives. I remember visiting the Antharam project with them during its preliminary stages of execution.
As I approached the end of my second year in college, I began seriously thinking about internships opportunities that could deepen my understanding of the Service Design industry I was so eager to step into. Organo just so happened to be the first place I sent my CV. I wasn’t sure if I’d get in, but my parents encouraged me to just send that first email through, and I remember feeling a mix of excitement and nerves, hopeful of being part of something that had inspired me years ago. I only wish you could have seen the gleam in my face as I realized an internship offer letter was sitting in my inbox after several back-and-forth conversations with the HR Team.
It felt like I had circled back to find myself in a very familiar place.
I’m currently interning at Organo Eco-Habitats, working on ways to enhance customer experiences through design research, systems thinking and building, and innovative problem-solving.
Being surrounded by people who have a deep eye for design has helped me gain insights that stretch beyond my own discipline, particularly into Interior Design and Architecture. I’ve observed and learned from meetings that they weren’t just about addressing surface-level concerns but digging into the emotional and unspoken doubts that customers carry. This enhanced the way I thought of identifying deeper needs and bridging perceptual gaps around sustainability, lifestyle, and design expectations. As I built on CX for Metaphor, I also began connecting dots between CRM, design, architecture, and community, better understanding how more complicated business structures and coordination works. Through my observations and understandings, I’ve been able to put my ideas forward to help improve CX. I also had the chance to revisit Organo Antharam, nearly 3 years after I had last seen it, this time as an Intern to understand and see how vision is brought to life as well as help out in a community building event promoting mindfulness living. It was an amazing experience filled with food, people, and laughter. It’s only been 3 weeks, and I’ve grown not just as a designer, but as someone who listens more carefully, observes more deeply, and finds new ways to connect people, systems, and purpose.
I look forward to further exploring how sustainable design can shape the lives of individuals, communities, the economy, and environment; how eco-consciousness is being integrated into the heart of business models; and how eco-living can become more accessible, scalable, and impactful. Organo’s vision of co-creating eco-habitats that celebrate life and it’s mindset is something I hope to carry forward throughout my career as I work toward creating positive and purposeful change.
About Organo Et School (OES)
Organo Et School empowers people to embrace eco-living mindsets, behaviors, and habits. We recognize that for any positive impact to be sustainable, it must be long-term and inter-generational.
UNESCO recognized Organo Et School as a green citizen initiative and Uplink, the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum (WEF) recognized OES as Global Innovative Solution.
Organo Et School is an experiential learning initiative set up by Organo in 2017 and has been facilitating field visits and workshops for Schools and Interest Groups. Organo Et School has impacted over 11,500+ students, 5,000+ adults,1,500+ families, 40+ schools, 15+ communities, 10+ corporates over the past 8 years.
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Email us at at oes@organo.co.in or call us at 91541 00775
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