Now, imagine another chair. It also has the same standard structure with four legs, but with some key differences. This one matches your height perfectly; you only need to bend your knees, and your bottom meets a lovely, puffy cushion. The backrest is perfect, and it even includes neck support.

Which one would you choose to sit on to watch a three-hour-long film? The latter, of course, unless you want to squirm in your seat throughout the movie.

Even though the basic structures of these two chairs are essentially the same, the key factors that differ in the second chair—the perfect seat height, the lovely cushion, and the backrest—considerably change how we approach them. These little game-changing factors are what make the second chair ergonomic.

What is ergonomics?

Derived from the Greek words ergon (work) and nomoi (natural laws), ergonomics is the science of designing environments, products, and systems to fit the people who use them. Instead of forcing the human body to adapt to a poorly designed object (like stretching to fit into a giant, awkward chair), ergonomics focuses on human capabilities. It studies our limitations and proportions to ensure that tools and spaces support our natural posture and movement.

It’s a concept you already encounter every day. The rubber handle on a steel ladle that protects your hand while you stir a bubbling pot of curry, or the wheels on a heavy suitcase that save your spine from bearing the load, etc., are all examples of ergonomics at play.

A similar philosophy applies to scooter usage. But with changing riding habits, what is the scope for improving its ergonomics? More importantly, how do you make a scooter intended for daily heavy-duty use, ergonomic?

In the world of two-wheelers, ergonomics is defined by the rider's primary points of contact with the scooter. This relationship is determined by a concept known as the ergonomic triangle, or more popularly, the rider’s triangle.

The ergonomic triangle

The ergonomic triangle is the real-life application of basic geometry. The relationship between your seat, your handlebars, and your floorboard forms the ergonomic triangle. While a geometric triangle on paper is static, real-world riding is dynamic. Every single component around the triangle has to be meticulously calibrated to expand, protect, and optimise these three primary points of contact for the scooter to be more flexible and accommodating.

Get this wrong, and you're hunched, strained, and counting down the minutes until you can get off the vehicle. Get it right, and you barely notice you're riding at all. Indie gets it right. The three touchpoints are fine-tuned so your back sits naturally upright, your arms reach the handlebar without stretching, and your feet properly rest without your knees climbing up to your chest.

Here is how the three focus-points of Indie’s ergonomic triangle are tailored to work together.

The seat

The seat is the foundation of the ergonomic triangle, dictating your hip placement and posture. Ride comfort is directly proportional to the quality of your seat; if it is too small, both you and your pillion will quickly grow to resent the journey.

Indie’s seat is long, wide, and exceptionally accommodating. It's padded well enough that you do not even think about it. Whether you're riding solo or with a pillion, there’s space on the seat. Nobody has to perch nervously on the edge, holding on for dear life.

Another key factor on the Indie is the seat placement: the H-point (where your hips sit) is a little farther back compared to most conventional scooters. This design choice is a gamechanger for taller riders. Because you sit further back, your long legs don’t have to fight for space, you don't have to stretch your arms too much, and neither do your knees scrape against the glove box panel when turning the handlebar.

The handlebar

Taking a sharp turn is where a lot of scooters betray you—the handlebar swings around and suddenly your knee and the bar are getting uncomfortably acquainted. When the riding triangle is too small, steering costs you comfort. Indie's handlebar is designed so that even at full lock, there's plenty of clearance between your knees and the bar. Your knees stay unbothered, and you stay focused on the road rather than bracing for that irksome contact.

The floorbed and the front foot-pegs

One of the first things you notice when you step onto Indie is how much space there is around your feet. The 20-inch floorbed is generous and gives you the freedom to shift your stance, move your feet, and simply sit as you like.

This space not only directly impacts your comfort, but also is a utility bonus. If the massive floorbed is loaded up with cargo, or if a taller rider simply wants to change their posture, they can throw their feet onto the front foot-pegs.

The front foot-pegs are a hit among Indie users, and anyone who test rides the vehicle. It is the ultimate proof that the ergonomic triangle can be even more flexible. By moving your feet forward, you instantly shift the traditional rider’s triangle into a relaxed, “cruiser-style” riding position. It ensures your knees never feel cramped.

Beyond the triangle

Even though the glove box panel isn’t technically a part of Indie’s rider’s triangle, it drastically influences how you experience it. Finding the perfect riding posture only works if the machine actually accommodates your body's natural movement. On a standard scooter, the glove box sits parallel to your knees. This means every sharp turn or sudden bump risks an uncomfortable collision.

We refused to let a rigid structure dictate your comfort. Instead of a boxy obstacle, Indie’s glove panel is specifically rounded, angled, and set back just enough to create crucial legroom. And we didn't compromise on utility to get there; the glove box still boasts a massive 12 liters of storage.

This design choice ensures there is absolutely zero friction if the 20-inch floorbed is fully loaded with cargo, or if you're leaning back using the front foot-pegs. And when you consider the stability-boosting 14-inch wheels, or an optional backrest accessory, every element works in harmony to deliver a flawless riding experience.

For a heavy-duty scooter built to endure the punishing demands of the daily grind, brilliant ergonomics prevent physical fatigue before it even starts. This becomes an invisible problem-solving tool for any rider. By carefully shaping every panel, peg, and touchpoint of the rider’s triangle to natural human geometry, Indie offers effortless support so you can focus entirely on the road ahead. Because at the end of the day, Indie is built for real riders, with real habits, tackling real roads.

Walking away from certainty

Just a year prior to that first surprise harvest, Ramakrishna had walked away from a life he’d built in Canada over 17 years. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a pause, his elderly mother expressed the desire to return to India for good. Coincidently, he too, felt a silent need to put Toronto behind. Around the same time, a few friends in India began discussing a business idea. The plan was just a faint blueprint, but something about it felt right.

So, in just 30 days, he quit his job, vacated his house, packed up his life, and returned to his roots in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.

When he left Canada, he knew very well that everything around him, predictably and inevitably, was about to change. No more waking up in the familiar concrete jungles of Toronto; the comfort of a corporate job and stability in daily routines suddenly became a distant dream.

"Most techies leave their job because they're tired, but not me," he observes. "I loved what I was doing." Ramakrishna was not someone who’d run away from changes. And the possibility of building something of his own gave him hope.

The idea

Fruit picking, as an activity of leisure, was very popular in the West but not in India. This thought excited Ramakrishna. He and his friends agreed that strawberries were the best fruit to begin with. It was a pretty fruit; red and glossy. It was a fairly commercialised fruit too, and had kids drooling over it.

They wanted to set up the farm in Bengaluru; surely, the city's crowd would want an escape from its mundanity and traffic! They spotted a market opportunity in a population that was increasingly health-conscious and looking to invest in sustainable, farm-to-table experiences. They'd found the perfect plot to lease, too. Two hours from the city, winding roads, endless fields, and countless cows will lead you to 10 acres of land. There, grew a small forest of Allahabad Safed guavas that vouched for the soil's fertility. The sweet scent of the fruits intoxicated the surroundings at all times. Thus, The Bangalore Berry Company had found its place in the world.

Can this actually work?

The initial six months after returning to India went entirely into research.

The team scoured the internet, watched videos, read farming guides, and absorbed everything they could find about strawberry cultivation. But theory alone could only take them so far.

That’s why Ramakrishna and his friends decided to walk into the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR). It was an impulsive decision, but one that’d prove to be beneficial in the long run. At IIHR, someone pointed the party towards the director of the institute. He was kind enough to meet them for 30 minutes. Ramakrishna recounts that conversation as fruitful. The director nudged them towards growing Italian strawberry varieties rather than just sticking to the popular American ones. It was also a reality check. The director listed out the problems they could possibly face, but the new farmers were too determined to give up.

On another day, a group of local experts visited the farm. They gently discouraged Ramakrishna from growing strawberries. "Stick to guavas," they said. It came from a place of concern, but the team was in too deep to just throw their hands up without even trying. "That kind of blind confidence was necessary at that initial stage," Ramakrishna laughs.

Learning the hard way

Safe to say, that blind confidence really did help. For his own endeavour was not devoid of mistakes, and each one taught him more than the internet ever did.

The mother plants are imported from countries like Italy and America. They arrive by flight to different parts of the country, frozen and sealed. These are then transported to Bengaluru by road or rail. In the first year, a bunch of mother plants arrived by rail on a rainy day. As Ramakrishna carried them to his vehicle, the damp boxes gave way and the plants plopped onto the floor. On another occasion, a new variety of strawberry plants he ordered bore no fruit. He even planted the saplings in a new patch, and once again, none of them yielded. These mistakes taught him about planning, experimenting with new varieties, and the importance of soil fertility. He had to—grudgingly—cut down all but a line of guava trees to use that fertile soil for strawberry patches.

A year on the farm

Through trials and errors, Ramakrishna finally cracked the code. 

The strawberry crop cycle in Bengaluru starts as early as the end of March, when the land is prepared by tilling and sun-drying the soil. In April, legumes are sown. These help enrich the soil by promoting beneficial microbes and improving fertility. Around May–June, the mother plants are imported and maintained at the plant nursery. Small cups filled with cocopeat are placed near them. The runners from the mother plants grow into these cups and sprout daughter plants. A single mother plant can produce about 10–12 daughter plants. By July, the legume crop is cut and fed back into the soil as green manure.

By September, the young strawberry plants are transplanted into the prepared fields. Within two months, delicate white flower buds begin to appear. Pollination takes place naturally and by December, the white blooms give way to the green of baby strawberries. Strawberries thrive in cool conditions, so harvesting continues through the winter until March.

And so, the fruit picking season begins.

Come, pick a strawberry

During the fruit picking season, Ramakrishna opens the gates of The Bangalore Berry Company on weekends to visitors. From tiny, wobbly toddlers to wise elderlies, everyone enjoys the farm. He tells the children that all the fruits at the farm are theirs, but not the sunflowers bobbing their big heads—those belong to the birds. The sunflowers distract birds from the strawberry flowers. He also plants broccoli to attract pests, because pests love broccoli more than strawberries. Since Ramakrishna encourages his visitors to eat fruits right off the plants, he cannot risk using any unnatural fertilisers—hence the use of broccoli and cabbage as safer alternatives. 

The people behind the farm

Men are largely hired for tilling the soil, ploughing the land, and preparing it for a new cycle. But according to Ramakrishna, it’s the women who are the backbone of The Bangalore Berry Company, “The local women help with the major chunk of the work, tending to plants with a steady care that no machine can replicate.” They water them, work fertiliser into the soil, and pinch off the heads of flowers that have trailed and withered, so the plant's energy goes where it matters. 

Weekdays are quiet. There are no tiny prying hands in the vicinity. But nature does not take a break; the fruits do ripen and need to be plucked regardless. To prevent these from going bad, the women make all kinds of jams and ice creams. The farm’s cafe offers a variety of strawberry-focused dishes. Aloo parathas with strawberry thokku (a delicious, spicy and tangy chutney), nachos with strawberries, a classic strawberry shake, and strawberry sandwiches are some of the crowd favourites.

When the season winds down and the plants are cut back, nothing goes to waste. Neighbourhood goatherds collect the cuttings and carry them off to feed their animals. 

What's next

Five years on, Ramakrishna now has two farms where he grows strawberries every year, along with other crops. His friends, with whom he had started the business, either got pulled back to their corporate careers or found a different path. But not Ramakrishna. Maybe it was the dopamine kick those first barely-strawberry bulbs gave him, or maybe it is his passion that goes into everything he does. Even when months yielded no fruit, Ramakrishna never quit. It didn’t even occur to him. "I had enough savings from my 17-year-long corporate career. The money gave me the confidence to start the farm. For that, I'm grateful," he explains.

In the future, he wants to try growing other crops; melons, mangoes, and some more vegetables. The idea is to bring people closer to nature. The Bangalore Berry Company has expanded beyond its signature fruit-picking events, collaborating with local NGOs to host special gatherings for children. Tiny humans walk into the farm to play and have fun. And just as he envisions, a community is slowly being built around nature.

To young people who want to try their hands at farming, Ramakrishna asks them to be cautious. Do not expect immediate gratification. Be patient.

Ramakrishna is a proud owner of a Spring Yellow Indie since April 2025.