Monday 29 July 2013

Chennai visit

After the 5-day visit to Auroville, we moved back to Chennai to be amongst a few relatives of Rekha. We were to spend 3 full days before we move to Hyderabad, where Anu (Rekha’s sister) now stays. From Hyderabad, we were to proceed to Amchi Mumbai. I was looking forward, apprehensively and curiously, to spending the next month in the world of my past life.
We were hosted by Rekha’s Chitti (Mausi) in Chennai. It’s truly touching to feel the love and affection, unaffected by passage of years (rather decades).
At an anniversary celebration of one of the cousins, we had the opportunity to meet with 6 of Rekha’s cousins – all younger by 3 – 10 yrs. The cons of an urban lifestyle are so apparent, but there is no action to fight them. Inaction is either due to ignorance, indifference, denial of the consequences or simple hopelessness in their own ability to fight. When I meet them, this strikes me immediately. Any talk about it seems meaningless, but there is still the concern. This concern for all the friends, cousins, siblings in my generation or those younger is weighing heavily in my heart, but I also know that no amount of talk can induce any action. I can only hope that our actions will play some part in inducing some action – some day!
3 days in Chennai breezed quite swiftly and we were ready to say bye. The experience of getting to the railway station revealed something interesting. Chennai Central is almost 30 km from where we were. A taxi would have charged over Rs. 800. We had a large suitcase, two airbags and some more bulky luggage. With 2 children and this luggage, it was quite natural that call for a taxi. But 800 bucks is some money and if I were not to be able to afford it, what would I have done? Fortunately for me, Rekha shares such thinking. We decided to take a local train. An auto rikshaw to the nearest station cost us Rs. 80 and the train tickets cost Rs. 25. From the local train station (Park), we had to walk to Chennai Central for about 10 min. We did it and reached our train at least 30 min earlier than what a taxi would have taken. It required reasonable physical strength to be able to carry the luggage, needless to say that it was inconvenient. Since we (not just me) had the required physical strength and more importantly the temperament, we could afford to take this decision and execute it without a frown (on the contrary we were very happy about it). Urban life is undoubtedly draining this physical strength and temperament at a very fast pace. What’s more, it is supplementing with decent income. But where is this leading us? What will it make of our children? In a sense, those who cannot afford it seem to be better placed.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Stay at Auroville, Puducherry

From Coimbatore, we went for a 2 hour visit to Palakkad. Rekha’s Attey (father’s sister). A few months back, she suffered a paralytic attack and survived despite the doctors having lost hope. I like spending some time with people, who have experienced death from close quarters. I feel they evolve exponentially. 
We met Rekha’s cousins and the daughter of one of the cousin. It was fun sharing what we were upto. Deepa (the daughter of one cousin) was genuinely interested in what we were doing, though she is yet to begin her career as a CA in the mainstream. It was so much fun watching Siddharth and Shreya share some photographs with Attey.
At the end of it, we felt that the visit was a bit too short.
I had an inkling to visit Auroville and understand the life and people there. As an idea, it appeared great that there is a large set of people living at the same place, who are off-mainstream and have broadly similar idea of living. Also the fact that it was a 4 decade plus old initiative, I was sure that it would have gone through a decent learning curve and evolved. 
We stayed at New Creation Guest House on the outskirts of Auroville. The owner was quite an interesting person. He was a French, married to a Tamilian and was an Aurovillian for over 40 years. We got to understand that he runs a school for the children of villagers around and runs the guest house to partly finance this activity. When we got to know this, the tariff of 1000 per day did not appear much. The facility was decent. We had access to the kitchen and had could cook our food if we felt like. We ended up cooking quite a few times and it was a relief not to eat out much. 
During the first two days, we felt that there is a lot to look around and even do. We were prepared to extend our stay to a few weeks, should we find something to do there and a more economical option to stay.  Basis the description available, we found it interesting to visit Sadhana Forest, Buddha Farm, Solar Kitchen and Centre for Scientific Research (CSR). We would have liked to meet someone who has done eco-friendly construction. Social life within Auroville and the character construct of a typical Aurovillian was also something that I was keen to understand.
We stayed there for 5 days and were broadly done with our objectives. For a 40 year old effort, Auroville doesn’t seem to have evolved much other than the physical infrastructure. It was meant to be a habitat for 50,000 people and barely 2000 stay in it currently. Though it is meant for those who have ‘evolved in their consciousness’, the joining eligibility & process still seems to suggest that it is an ‘alternate life for the elite’. Most people there intellectually believe in simplicity, eco-friendly, etc, their actions seem to be aimed at re-creating a city. Consequently, the society is heavily dependent on money from the main-stream. To me this appears to be the primary obstacle in the creation of a sustainable habitat. The time we were there was a ‘lean season’ and we found that the founders of Buddha Farm and Sadhana Forest were travelling. There was not much assistance available at CSR as well. It appeared that for the citizens of the alternate life, this life was not mainstream!
Some foreigners visiting the place were enchanted because they saw perfect strangers smiling and friendly. They found the food very tasty and the place quite safe.
There is an acute shortage of places to stay for new Aurovillians, who cannot construct their own houses. I think it would be appropriate if I can construct a few low-cost houses to ease the bottleneck, provided a piece of land is allotted.
While I can’t be sure, I get a feeling that most Aurovillians have a strong ‘black and white view’. They seem to assume a moral high-ground vis-à-vis mainstreamers. In my view, evolution enables a person to be more ‘tolerant to diversity’. Wherever I sense an absence of tolerance, I start questioning evolution.
Overall, I am impressed with the physical infrastructure that the place has to offer. Auroville seems to require support, not so much of money, but more of innovation. Lot of learning can yet happen by learning from the native oldies to create a lifestyle, which is comfortable, yet not heavily dependent on money from mainstream. To me there appears to be a shortage syndrome largely prevalent in their minds and at the same time, I can see and sense the abundance in reality.  Aurovillains and aspirants may need to shed their city paradigms and start afresh.

Monday 15 July 2013

3 Days with Ragu, Nisha & Aum

It was sheer coincidence (or call it Grand Design), that I met Ragunath and Nisha, a couple who returned to India after spending 9 years in the US of A. For the last 4.5 years, they’re living on their 2.5 acre farm approx 20 km off Coimbatore. I bumped into them a few weeks after we’d decided to quit urban life and move to a village. That time we were exploring if it is ok not to send our children to school. Ragu & Nisha said that they too don’t send Aum (their 6 yr old son) to school. We met once again in Mumbai and we’d decided then that we will visit their farm one day. The day happened to be June 27, 2013.
Ragu and Nisha are living a life closest to what we’d like to live. They have a beautiful farm and a thoughtfully built house. We were welcomed into their house as though we’ve known each other for years and we settled almost immediately. I told Ragu that I did not have a specific agenda or any question to ask. I just wanted to live with them for a few days - and that is what we did. We cooked, worked in their farm, played and went for an outing. We had a few long conversations. It was a lovely time spent. 
Both of them are quite social and they have a very wide network of people who keep meeting, visiting and communicating with them regularly. They learnt Naturopathy and host these courses at their farm quite frequently. I am amazed at their ability to host people. Their genuine love is visible in every act.
Ragu and Nisha live what can be termed as an alternate life. They grow some food, barter some of what they grow for what they need instead of buying with money, home-educate their child, do their own work (not employed a maid servant), they don’t have a TV, car, refrigerator and most modern gadgets. They are attempting to be vegans (not eat any animal produce including milk and milk derivatives). What is striking that the absence of any of the so called ‘fun’ activities in a typical urban life does not come in the way of being truly happy. Ragu is connected with a lot of people who think alike and is also part of an initiative called ‘Service Space’. He has successfully made an influence on many of his immediate family (parents, siblings, etc) with Naturopathy. 
One of the natural consequences of my moving out of the mainstream was that my circle of friends shrunk significantly, almost completely. It is not an unpleasant consequence at all because the other side I get friends in Ragu and Nisha. The trade-off still works in my favour. 

Thursday 11 July 2013

Taking a Vacation!!!

By June, we’d spent over 4 months in the new life at Barkheda. The house construction was largely done except the doors and windows. We felt that rainy days will pose challenges and we weren’t fully prepared. So we decided to take a vacation! Vacation from a vacation like life!!!
The plan was to meet people rather than visit places. For the last 2 weeks or so, while we’re into the vacation, I’ve been meeting people, understanding them from a new context, learning to view from their perspective. I found that it makes sense to keep aside all the sense of good and bad, right and wrong, moral and amoral. That way, the learning is enhanced and judgements are avoided. I’m finding it quite difficult, but hopefully should get it right with practice.
There is also an unanswered question about ‘work’. Is it ok to live just to satisfy the basic requirements of the family, assuming that our savings can satisfy the limited monetary requirements we have? I hope to find a few answers in this regard during this vacation. If I don’t want to work for money, should I work at all? If yes, what work and what for?