In memoriam - Stephen Raj

On Tuesday 13 December, Stephen Raj (Jesudass) from Isaiambalam, left his body in Pondicherry’s Mahatma Gandhi Hospital. Being a heart patient and feeling quite unwell these last weeks, he was being prepared for treatment of a liver infection when the cardiac arrest occurred. He had just turned 60 in September.

Stephen Raj was one of the early Aurovilians. Having arrived with his family from Coimbatore in the early seventies, they joined Bryan’s community work in Fraternity. Afterwards he was active as a member of the LEM, the LCC and Land Board staff. Together with his wife, Stella, he was also teaching at Isai Ambalam School in Kottakarai. In 2004 he officially joined Auroville.

After a short ritual visit to his home in Isai Ambalam and a stay at the Farewell Centre where friends and relatives bade him goodbye, his body was buried on Wednesday, 14 December, at Adventure’s burial grounds.