Growing up in Auroville

Jangchup’s experience 

If someone were to ask me “What is it like to live in an Intentional Community, especially in a place like Auroville?” Well, to be specific, I do not know much about the bureaucratic side of Auroville, but because of this, it hit me one day that I am at the age that I definitely should be knowing this, and that the future of Auroville lays in our hands. The more I looked into these management groups, I realized that these explorations answered many of the questions I had a few months back.

I think that to be born and to grow up in Auroville is a huge blessing in itself. To grow not just physically and mentally, but also psychologically from a very young age really shaped me into who I am today; that is nothing other than to feel grateful for and lucky. The biggest gift of growing up in a small town, where people from about 59 countries live together, is that it really developed me to be open-minded and welcoming towards people despite their race, skin colour, and their gender identity. It appears that for 52 years (and running), children, young adults, parents, and the elder citizens have gone through the thick and thin moments of Auroville’s legacy. They have volunteered to take the commitment and the responsibility in order to fulfill The Mother’s Dream and wish. And today, as a child of Auroville, I feel incredibly honoured and indebted to my birthplace; when the elders say with a moon crescent smile and a calming chuckle that we are Auroville’s future generations – there is a reassuring feeling inside of me that ignites a spark of warmness. The cycle will always go on – and just like that, one day. Hopefully all my classmates, my friends, my seniors and juniors, will be adults with different scopes and experiences and will take over and supply the community with impressive and disciplined work ethics.

…

The most distinct feature I’ve noticed and experienced of living in Auroville is the education system that stands out from the rest of the schools that I have visited and participated in exchange programmes from (like the Tibetan schools in Dharmsala and in neighbouring areas as well). It makes sense that most people who plan to settle in Auroville may wonder what the education system in an international community would be like. I would say that schools in Auroville, from Kindergarten (2.5-7 years) until Middle School (7-14 years), are mostly focused on the foundation part first, building and developing each individual’s physical being, as well as exposing each child to cultural diversity, the importance behind teamwork, and the feature of achieving knowledge.

…

Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to travel the world and to understand the unique and diverse cultures of many places, and I think that aspiration was remarkably forceful, so the curiosity in me grew deeper. 17 years of my life have passed now, and I have many things on my mind – just like any other teenager would. However, there are times where I wonder to myself who I want to be in the future – not just career-wise, but as a person. There were people in my life, who have commented in the past on my qualities and abilities to generate my full potential, but to be honest, deep down, I was and still am terrified. It sounds silly, but I guess that is enough to show that my self-esteem and confidence is undeniably limited. 

From the beginning, as long as I can remember, I was always shy and uptight – it’s strange, because even though I grew up in a place with so much freedom and comfort, my personality seemed to differ from the rest of the Auroville children. I think that is why, whenever I was with my friends, I used to be the one that contrasted the most; like the black sheep in a herd of other ordinary white ones. Even though people say that everyone is different from one another, I couldn’t help feeling inferior to the others.

There were also times as a young child, when I proudly boasted to my friends about how fine and rich the culture of my motherland was, but this was before I knew in detail the political situation of Tibet. Later, when I eventually understood the meaning behind the expressions of my friends, I found out why my mother and the millions of Tibetans across the world that are staying refuge in other countries could not return back to Tibet, and I have to be honest, it destroyed me, and although for a long time I was confused, I had to accept the reality. 

…

I have to say, my mature-like thoughts for a 17-year-old girl are a result of my parents doing their best to provide for my early years of childhood with unwavering moments of happiness, despite the situations. Also to be born in a Tibetan family, where my mother Kalsang Dolma, and father Tenzin Namgyal, taught that doing good deeds is just an act of kindness, and that there should not be expectations from the other side when doing them, otherwise the purpose and the light of it will disappear. There aren’t many Tibetans living in Auroville, so as an Auroville child I grew a bit distant to my Tibetan roots. However, my parents did their best to keep the mother tongue alive, and taught me the Tibetan language while growing up.

…

Honestly, to really understand how I feel about living in one place my whole life seems a bit overwhelming, and it could take some time for me to really ask myself how I feel about living in this place that I call home. There are mixed feelings that I cannot seem to comprehend, but it does feel reassuring that there are people who I can relate to. I successfully learned and got to practice my creativity skills, and I also got to express my intellectual self to many people, through many failures and mistakes, I learned how to not put myself down and rather feel passionate about fixing problems. After listening to older Aurovilians’ stories about life back in the old days, I was bewildered and impressed by the incredible hard work that they put in to build and shape Auroville together under the mindset of The Mother’s dream – Human Unity. In Auroville, well at least in the past, I was told that words such as ‘togetherness’, ‘friendship’, ‘goodness’, ‘compassion’, and ‘humanity’ had a much more profound and resonating meaning than today. 

…

Of equal importance, I do not intend to speak on behalf of the youth of Auroville about how they feel because this is based on my personal opinions and feelings – for me, it was a fraction that was mixed with how I felt that I am who I am today. As important as my parents have been for my presence today, there is also some part of me that belongs to my lineage’s way of life – integral development, and to treat people with kindness and compassion are the most basic values we follow. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is one of the people that I respect, honour and learn from the most – if you listen to any of his teachings just once, I can guarantee that His Holiness’ words will leave you immersed as he beautifully narrates his childhood stories that are related to the teaching’s topic. I do not know how to describe further since the feelings felt are something more complex than words could ever describe. 

The connection between the Tibetan society in India (especially Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh) and Auroville has blossomed into a truly beautiful connection. One other part of myself is because of Auroville, everything about it: the reason I am full of different ideas, views, and approaches may be defined as a manifestation of each country’s dignity. I think that goes the same for most Auroville children – or it should be.

Tenzin Jangchup,

17 years old, Future School

Sneha’s reflections

First impressions aren’t always exact, they say, and I agree with this statement because if I had held onto my first impression of Auroville, things would have been pretty different in life. 

Eight year old me had this image in her head that her life was going to change into something amazing after my parents told me we were leaving to Auroville. In reality, it was the complete opposite. I arrived at the outskirts of Auroville pretty late at night, and the sky that I imagined to be perfectly blue was dark with storm clouds.

The car stopped right in front of a purple gate which led to my house. There was thunder and flashes of lightning in the sky with pouring rain. I was small and confused, and the water was rising around where I stood outside. Not able to see in the dark, I made my way to the porch of the house. Tired, damp and drenched, I dried myself and slept, not knowing what tomorrow would bring. 

The next morning, I woke up around noon and went scavenging for food, but instead I was faced with the horrifying aftermath of thunderstorms in Auroville. Twigs and branches from trees lay all over the place. Also, as this place hadn’t been cleaned in quite some time, a layer of moss covered the brick walls and most of the ground. Coming from a town, I was really grossed out by the creatures living in moist and forest-like places, a typical feeling people get when they first visit the greenbelts of Auroville. 

Hungry, I made my way to a dining area at the school I was going to be living in with my parents, and that is when I first came across Tamil. I was lost even more, and the fact that I would not be able to communicate with most people made me want me to go away from Auroville. The food wasn’t great either. I didn’t want to face these situations every day, or live somewhere so foreign that even my own house wouldn’t make me feel comfortable. Frustrated, I insisted on going back to where we came, North India, but that was the last thing my parents would have done then.

A couple of days, a month, passed by, but I still hated Auroville. My parents tried to make things fun for me, introducing me to other children my age, taking me to the beach, but nothing helped. I missed my childhood and all the friends I had, and every night I would stay up and wonder if we would ever go back. 

Soon, I was attending school. I caught the hang of English pretty quickly, which helped me talk to most people. Slowly, I made a lot of friends and Tamil itself didn’t seem that hard. A 

couple of years later I was fluent in it. In the meantime, I learned a lot about Auroville. How it once used to be a barren land with only a couple of palmyra trees scattered around a landscape which now was a lush green forest, and that they were all planted by people. 

As time went by, I soon grew to know why my parents had brought me here and what really the purpose of Auroville was. A French woman named Mira Alfassa – mostly known as The Mother, visioned an international community where people from all over the world would come together to live in harmony and unity, where each individual would progress to discover who they are and be a part of the experiment.  My parents wanted me to live a lifestyle different from the normal. They wanted me to explore and experiment and grow into a person that I really wanted to be and that was why they brought me here. 

Years passed by and I crossed my childhood stages. At the age of 13 I first reflected on the past and on all what had happened since that dark stormy night, and that is when I got to the conclusion that my opinions on Auroville had completely changed. I never realised that I actually really enjoyed living here and loved doing the things that I did. Every little fact about Auroville was wonderful, and it has become such an important part of my life, without which I would have been a different person right now. 

Auroville gave me freedom to do what I was most interested in doing, and enjoy the little things. It made me feel secure and safe, and made me bold enough to be independent. My ideas and perspectives are respected, and living in an international community makes me feel like I’m a part of the whole world and not just India. There is diversity, there are traditions, cultures and people with so much ethnicity that one starts questioning why it doesn’t exist elsewhere. There are no boundaries to experimenting, and I think what really matters is that we all are happy doing what we are doing.

Auroville is beautiful too, from the architecture to the natural features, and most importantly, the Matrimandir, which is the result of the hard work and sweat of hundreds of people: a true golden beauty.  

Being in high school now, there will be a stage in my life in which I would have to live elsewhere. Even though I was not born here, I feel most connected to this place. It is where I truly feel like myself, it’s just the environment and people around me who make me feel like home.  At the beginning, it was a little hard to find the ground, but once I was steady, the wonders of Auroville were limitless. 

To me, what matters most are the impressions I get throughout the journey and the last one... and as it hasn’t ended yet.  I wait for Auroville to play its next trick. 

Neha’s story

When asked about Auroville, I’m sure all Aurovilians find great difficulty in portraying the exact idea of this place. It is almost impossible to find the right details or deliver the right impression to the person who’d like to know. There are more than a thousand differences between the ordinary lifestyle (the one outside of Auroville) of a certain people and the people who live in experimental cities like we do; then again, there are countless similarities as well. 

Growing up here gives you a whole new perspective of life right from the start. It’s like living in the world all at once. You sink in the idea of a harmonic coexistence with other people, especially in Auroville where one is situated in a life based on basic needs and sharing. This causes people to grow qualities, such as self-sufficiency and interpersonal growth. There’s time and space for development in all areas within oneself, which helps to balance the strengths and weaknesses in people in this society. You start to notice everyone around you and how they are related to your life. However, when everything is so simplified and entangled, living on trust, it makes it extremely hard to not take everything for granted. In Auroville where factors like money, no religion, culture, and government are not as generalised as in the world outside Auroville, it makes it difficult to differentiate. It often brings me to the question: is that reality or is it this?

On the other hand, it is not like we live in a fairyland of our own. Every city, every land, is a part of our society so we all grow up knowing the limits we live in. We, especially the children, are ingrained in the Auroville norm that for us this becomes the main idea, the structure of home that we base other structures on. 

This is different for volunteers, visitors, and Newcomers who come from outside and decide to stay here as they are taking a risk, stepping into this abnormality before questioning the normality. 

Intentional communities are formed by dreams, aspirations and hopes, mostly projected towards a more hopeful future. There may be some people who grow more than others in a certain direction, but in the end the destination is the same.

If I had to imagine that Auroville could be located anywhere else in the world I would no longer be able to call it the Auroville we know. The location of Auroville is vital and I feel that we often overlook it because anything that changes from government to laws to social or environmental factors in the country creates a two-fold impact on us. 

As I grew older and became part of more mature conversations, I realized that it is not just the radius inside Auroville and the happenings between its people that create the radiance of its existence, but also the factors of Indian culture and people that flow in and out of Auroville. I realized that India has done a wonderful job in not regarding Auroville as a blank page but in highlighting it, internationalizing it and helping it adapt to its own values in order to develop and familiarise with its environment. 

Auroville is surrounded by villages rich in South Indian heritage and tradition, and despite the wide range of nationalities in its citizens and tourists, it can be said that almost everyone who lives in Auroville is a child of India themselves. There are verbal slangs, certain moralities and an unconscious teaching or understanding of the Indian lifestyle that is embedded in people who live here. It is wonderful to see how foreigners adapt to this country while still being able to feel at home inside Auroville. They soak in the Indian society around them and make it part of their own. I don’t know how other intentional cities work beyond Auroville, but I think without this intimate understanding relationship between country and city, Auroville could never work.

Those who hear about Auroville always demand to know how such an unreal image of paradise exists in the greedy, selfish and money-driven world we live in. To them, it feels like a sandcastle, a marvellous, interesting social experiment but ready to crumble at any given time. And I suppose there is some truth in that, after all it amazes all of us that Auroville exists and has existed for the past fifty years. Nevertheless, we know better than the peaceful image we show. We cannot deny that people do indulge in their own luxuries in Auroville and that there does exist richer and poorer as in every society, but the gap is not so visible and it’s not something that is inflexible.. With awareness of that we still strive or appear to strive towards global unity in our differences, accepting the same flow of life that courses through everyone while minimalizing the waste bits that threaten to pollute its people. 

It’s difficult to describe Auroville when I don’t know exactly what to compare it to. Is it comparable at all? Growing up in Auroville has always appeared like such a lucky and unique experience; however, as an Aurovilian child, it feels like the standard. It is not special for me to have this range of choices and availabilities that may not come to those outside and it isn’t strange to be living in a place where everyone knows everyone. There are countless examples of this: your neighbour may also be your yoga instructor, and your best friend’s mother is a person who serves you lunch at a restaurant. It’s a woven web of interactions and relationships that link people together who would most likely have never met or become so close. 

This connection traverses nationalities and religions towards a point where we celebrate Diwali as well as Christmas, and traditions like Valentine’s Day are exchanged among people who had never celebrated it before. There are no set values or characteristics that everyone carries; in its interwoven culture, multicultural people are born. From languages and food to ceremonies and perspectives, we are moulded into a person who has hundreds of windows to the world through which we can form firm ideas and beliefs. I believe this education – that happens not just through schools but also through conversations and friendships – are weapons that can battle things like racism and sexism. There’s respect and understanding of identity and opinion at the base of all the tiers in our character and there comes a day as you grow up in this environment that you no longer just inhabit it but you live it. 

Auroville’s geographical identity also has a great impact in the way we shape our lives. Everything here promotes and protects the environment, from solar panels to garbage recycling, some live in the forest, others in apartments. The animals and plants that surround us are taken in awareness and we have grown to accept their presence, be it a lizard sneaking under the kitchen sink or a thorny bush sprouting in the garden. The sweltering heat that sways in the humidity all year long before the fresh monsoon is also a quite unfortunate part of this ecosystem that we have all adapted to. 

Everyone lives in communities, shares the same food, walks the same paths, trades material things like clothes and books (shout-out to Free Store); yet in all this oneness, there are three thousand people living completely different lives. 

There are difficulties, of course, in experiments like these. No society is perfect, thus we do quarrel and argue and compete with one another, resolving our differences in communal meetings or team workshops. There are unhappy adults who want to earn what they work for and children who don’t know who they are. It’s a small community that constantly fights the world inside and outside of it. You’re taking off the standard package to change to one that you design on your own. It can reward you in so many ways, yet you are forced to distinguish yourself a lot too. You can be Indian and not relate to other Indians, because when you live in Auroville, you sort of leave that all behind: you become Aurovilian.

On the other hand, I believe that as we progress in this world we are all slowly submitting to being global citizens, all cities are becoming intentional cities in themselves. We are changing them, advancing them to an intended level that we believe is better for us, and it is not just the buildings and the roads that are changing, but it is the people themselves. We are becoming aware that the goal we aim to achieve as humanity in all this confusion is closer in a place like Auroville than it is in the divided world.