Dr. Jyoti Mathur started his career teaching at an agriculture university based in Udaipur. He had no idea that one day he would  be a businessperson. But one thing led to another and currently he is in the business of consulting related to horticulture. He runs an enterprise by the name of  Kshitiz Landscape Consultants in Udaipur.

Dr. Jyoti Mathur originally hails from Sikar district of Rajasthan. But since 1983 he has been living in the city of lakes, Udaipur. His family comprises his wife and two sons. His wife is a professor of zoology at MLSU, Udaipur. Jyoti has done B.Sc. and M.Sc. When Jyoti was in college in 1978 he came to Udaipur for a tournament. At that time he was amazed by the beauty of Udaipur and wished to stay here. But he never knew that one day he will be teaching here at one of the universities and soon the city of lakes will be his next home.

After completing his B.Sc., Jyoti was clueless as to what he could do next. He even got a government job but didn’t join it. Though everyone in his family disapproved of his decision. Later he went to his maternal grandfather’s home and completed his M.Sc. Post M.Sc. he got a job offer at an agriculture university in Udaipur. In 1983 he came to Udaipur and joined the university.

Whilst teaching at the university he would also provide consultation to the people in matters related to horticulture.  He says that though there were many other consultants and architects, most of them were based out of Udaipur and did not have much knowledge of Udaipur’s climate and soil. So the solutions provided by them  couldn’t solve the problems of the people.

Sharing about how he came into consultancy,  Jyoti says that one of his clients suggested him to do the consulting related to horticulture full-time. Taking a cue from his advice Jyoti started his venture and named it after the name of his first son. His firm’s name is Kshitiz Landscape Consultants. He does the land planning and draws land-use plans.

Jyoti says that during this COVID-19 pandemic when other businesses suffered, his business thrived. People became aware of the benefits of organic food and healthy lifestyle and it gave him many more opportunities to scale up his business. Jyoti says that his younger son who is an architect by profession was working in Mumbai. But due to the lockdown he had to come to Udaipur. Initially he was reluctant to join this business. But when he worked with his father on some projects he realised that this business has a lot of potential and one can also give back to mother earth being involved in this business. Jyoti knows about horticulture and his son is an architect and the duo makes the right combination. They provide consulting related to landscape planning.

Jyoti got married in 1989. He celebrated his wedding in the simplest way possible. He didn’t even accept dowry. He says that he got inspired by Prof. Vijaynarayan to lead a simple life with high thinking.

Jyoti says that education is really important in one’s life. Education shouldn’t be merely a way to procure a job. It should be about creating jobs rather than seeking jobs. One should work on developing oneself holistically through education.

Talking about his childhood, Jyoti says that some part of his childhood was spent in a small village where there was no electricity. They had to pull water out of the well. He completed his schooling till 5th standard in this village itself. For further studies he would walk to a gurukul 6 km away from his village. Meanwhile his elder brother died of tetanus. After that he with his parents shifted to Laxmangarh as his father was employed in the government sector. That’s when he saw electricity for the first time.

Jyoti is of the opinion that everyone should do organic farming so that they can have home-grown organic vegetables. He also says that we should plant trees to make our environment carbon neutral.

Apart from his work, Jyoti likes to travel a lot and read a lot. He has visited many countries so far and aims to visit many more. He says that there is no correlation between money and happiness. It’s one’s attitude toward one’s life that makes one happy. One should enjoy every moment as much as one can. Because no one knows what tomorrow holds for us.