A Glimpse of the future?

Lampshades were one of the first items produced by Auroville’s small handicraft units, which started up in the 1970s to provide an income for individuals and for the community. Over the years, as designs were refined, they became popular in the Indian market. Guy’s Radiance was one of the most successful of these units. 

Txuma joined his workshop in the 2000s and was immediately inspired to come up with new designs. “I couldn’t believe that every day I was designing new items because I have no training in this. I am a musician.”

His original thread globe lampshades became very popular, and he wanted to expand Guy’s production with them. However, Guy had worked with lampshades for a long time and was ready to move on to new things. “So my partner, Elodie, and I bought his whole stock. It was a huge investment for us. It was also a big risk as this was 2008, the year of the big financial crisis. People thought we were crazy…”

They named their new unit Glimpse. The thread globes became so popular that they were widely copied. This became a drawback as the copied items were of bad quality and this impacted the image of Elodie, as it was sometimes thought that these were actually made by their workshop. However the positive outcome was that it encouraged them to create new and original products.

They tied up with Fabindia, which wanted them to supply lampshades in bulk. “But big companies like this look for profit and big production. This tends to kill the imagination and creativity, giving the supplier all the responsibility and stress with little profit in exchange.”

So after some years they let the big production line fizzle down and started working more with personalized designs for private as well as public spaces. They downsized from twenty to six workers, “as we preferred to concentrate on products which are more in tune with Auroville’s ideals, being more beautiful and creative than big production in exchange for profit”.

But then came the COVID lockdown. 

At first they kept paying full salaries to the workers because they thought that everything would open again soon. But as the lockdown continued with no income, and their expenses mounted, they could only pay for half a month’s work.  Eventually, they decided they had to let their workers go and paid them off. “It cost a lot because we paid their gratuities in full, but we had always put that money aside.” 

Will they re-employ them when the lockdown ends? “I don’t know. That would be projecting into the future and my mind tells me all kinds of stuff that may not happen.”

Meanwhile, Txuma’s life has changed. “Before the pandemic happened, I was running here and there, but then I realised I didn’t have to do that anymore. I had been preparing light sculptures for an exhibition for over a year and a half and never had time to really work on them, but now I have time. The COVID lockdown has been a blessing in disguise.

Besides, what is really important in life? It’s having a life worth living, not chasing money to pay bills and buying stuff.  Each of us has to find out what it is they are chasing.”

At the same time, Txuma sees the present crisis as an opportunity for Auroville to change in certain ways.  For example, while tourism is one of Auroville’s major sources of revenue, Txuma is concerned about the possible impact.  He has seen how places of natural beauty elsewhere have been spoiled by being commercialized. Tourism also encourages the production of cheap, shoddy products to sell to tourists, and Txuma sees the same things happening here. 

“Many years ago, Auroville products were of high quality. The Auroville name really meant something, but now we are selling so much c***p.  So this could be an opportunity to start making something of much higher quality and originality which vibrates with the spirit of Auroville…and this would bring in just as much income.”    

However, Txuma feels they are still many units and initiatives that bring pride to Auroville’s name, such as the Botanical Gardens, Colours of Nature and Maroma, in addition to certain individuals through the work they do.

He also feels concerned by the way Auroville’s commercial units are treated. “When you start a unit, you put all your money and energy into it, you take all the responsibility, often no with no personal income for a long time, yet nobody asks you if you need help. But once there is a profit, Auroville wants a part of it. This is fine as we are supposed to help the community in any way we can. But the moment there is no more profit, you are back on your own, so it is not very encouraging to start anything new. This means units have to be financially careful and keep money aside for dire times like the ones we are facing now. We did that with Glimpse, so today we are in the same position as when we started, meaning on our own.

“How can we do things differently here in Auroville? That is our everyday challenge. Different doesn’t necessarily mean better, but there has been a trend towards mediocrity in the way we build, eat and communicate, and even in the items we produce. So if we want to keep being relevant to the world we must aspire for the extraordinary… and Mother will do the rest.