In memoriam - Hervé Millet

Alain Bernard, a long-time colleague, wrote this about him on Auronet:

Hervé…. We had some time to prepare ourselves for his departure, yet it feels so strange to think that no longer will we see this elongated being unfolding himself from some stool or boulder on which he would occasionally be perched like a strange bird with folded wings. No longer will we get from him some story or another told with a twinkle as he had a special taste for the unusual or original manifestations of life. He could be very silent as well as talk a lot. Quite a bit gossipy at times but usually with no malice.

Hervé was the archetypal companion, he would often form strong connections mostly around material work. Before coming to Auroville, he had been very much attracted by the community called the Companions, who form around the concept of excellence in material work, such as carpentry or masonry. To become a Companion, you had to follow a special process demonstrating your proficiency in your chosen field of work. Hervé had clearly the mystique of companionship and it reflected in his way of reacting to life situations.

During the special period when we had to defend Auroville’s freedom, you could always count on Hervé to come and participate in any type of action called by the circumstances, whether sit-ins, protests, occupations of sites or buildings. He was with me in the first group of prisoners in the Tindivanam jail but he was also in the group that was later arrested and sent to Villipuram. Hervé was surely made of the human material that makes the famed “good” French soldier, patient, resourceful, resilient, rather abstemious, tenacious. He was indeed Mother’s soldier.

I had the privilege of helping him in his last passion in life, hand-made paper. Serge, another great companion in my Auroville life, was looking for ways to support Auroville Press, which was always in precarious survival mode. Serge told me of his idea to revive the activities of hand-made paper which had existed in the beginnings of Auroville but had gone extinct. It immediately inspired me and I promised to help. Some time later, with Hervé, we used mixies in the food processing unit to make our first attempt at hand-made paper. We made two rather thick pancakes-like white paper, happy like kids. Afterwards, it was a long story of slowly recuperating the old Hand Made Paper building, paying off old debts, purchasing small HMP machines to begin. I continued for some time to participate in the adventure but it was mostly Hervé who became passionate about paper, plunging deep into it, reading a lot of old and recent books . I remember making photocopies of pages and pages of very old books in the Madras Central Library (Hervé would devour these pages). He was always looking for and making new experiments, including once making paper out of elephant poo. Together with Luisa, he built Auroville Papers to the level of excellence they have attained.

Hervé’s personal life has been solitary but he did not seem to suffer from it, maybe due to his otherwise intense partnerships in activities with different people. In a way, he was like a tall grown-up kid and indeed he loved kids and had easy spontaneous relations with them. He once told me how marvellous he thought it must be to be a kid in Auroville. He was definite that in his next life he would come back as a kid in Auroville. He was surprisingly confident about it and it is again a manifestation of his way of relating to the Mother. I somehow believe that She will not disappoint him on this score, as She never failed to support him all along as he said himself in such a moving and simple way. Therefore I would not be surprised if Hervé, or rather whatever new form his Being will choose, comes back here, sooner or later.

So, indeed there is some melancholy in seeing old companions go away. As Fred said, “It’s getting lonely.” The circle of first comers is shrinking and it will only accelerate in the coming years. Often I hear that the spirit of the newcomers is not what it was forty or fifty years ago. I am not sure about that. It may be different because the world has changed a lot meanwhile.  But what has not changed is that the same Force is still moving Auroville – not us, surely, or so little, associated by sheer grace – and that Force is calling whoever is meant to be here or must be here as It did from the beginning. (I am not naïve. I know there may be some who are not really meant to be here and surely we did not manage to sustain very well Her protective shield all these years.) Yet She said Auroville will be and it is Her project. In Her project Hervé was a worthy foot soldier. Hervé had no doubt that the true Auroville would come, and that he would continue to move along with it, towards it. So long, Hervé. We shall meet again and again.