Going organic is, in a sense, going back to the way it used to be. A time when fertilizers did not automatically mean harmful chemicals, and when the vegetables and fruit you ate came from soil, which would be replenished with healthy manure and mulch.

A visit to the Dubden Healthy Living Store, located in a swish New Delhi `urban village', tells you that eating organic has just become easier, because that's the intention of Jayashree and Ganesh Eashwar: To provide the consumer a range of organic foods. "It could be one organic product as opposed to another, which could be more or less expensive, but the important thing is that you go away with something that is organically grown and produced," says Ganesh Eashwar, who along with his wife, quit high-profile, fat-salaried corporate jobs to run the store.

The thing with staying on the organic track, always assuming you've decided to go the route (with a 15 to 20 per cent hike in your monthly grocery bill because that's how much more organic produce costs, on an average), is the difficulty in finding it all under one roof. Dubden stocks not just vegetables and fruits, but also pickles, jams, preserves, cooking oils and whole grain breads, which says Jayashree, are all sold out long before the day is done. So you'll find Navdanya products, as well as other brands, which may not necessarily be organic, but are `healthier' options, on the shelves.

The spacious store also has corners that displays hand-made woollen garments, as well as a counter where you can get a whole bunch of essential oils. Just the fact that the store has so much space is indicative of the way things are: There are not so many people who have turned organic just yet.

The Eashwars, who started out with a farm on the outskirts of Bangalore, soon realised that departmental stores give cursory attention to organic products, with a neglected, ill-stocked shelf or two. And that NGOs who work directly with farmers do not have the tools to link up directly with consumers. "Basically, what we are doing is the opposite of NGOs - by linking with others who do the same thing, we are making sure that we manage to provide a range of products - rice from the South and the North East, pulses from the hills for example, in our own store, and in other stores. Pretty much like the old time barter system," they chuckle together.

My favourite, from the Dubden store: sun-dried fruit, good for a post-meal treat, or a mealtime snack. Both the banana and mango, which one chose from an array of other fruit, were tasty and aromatic.