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.
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