Red feet: Growing up in Auroville

Home birth is rather common and very accessible here in Auroville, and I was one of those lucky children to evacuate my warm private cocoon straight into what would be my home for my first 19 years. My parents and a good friend celebrated this with a glass of red wine, comfortable at home in Ami. My midwife Hilde has helped countless into this world, and she is still in town (albeit retired)!

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In Auroville, most mothers started working again quite early after birth. Back then, children were often left in the care of the household helps. Parents had also set up a “pre-crèche” for children between 2 and 3. My mother started working as a teacher in Transition School when I was one and a half, so I went to the pre-crèche, and I loved it! I was so happy to spend time with my new friends.

My mother – like many other parents – became a teacher out of necessity, as “real” teachers became exasperated and left because the kids here were too rowdy. Fret not, there are more anecdotes regarding these wildlings in the following paragraphs.

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Between the age of five and ten, I started sneaking out of my house at night to go over to a neighbour’s house. Social gatherings often happened there, and the music drew me in like light does phototactic bugs. I’d go over and sit in a corner, watching people dance and talk. My parents never panicked, they knew where I was and that I was all right. I remember that they’d come over at some point to put me back in bed. 

It is evident that these people were not my peers, but age difference never discouraged me. I can easily make conversation with people 15 years younger and older than me. This has been the case from early on, which I believe is thanks to being listened to and respected here, even as a child. Everyone is given the chance and opportunity to share their thoughts, no matter the age group.

The love of socialising has always stayed with me, I enjoy inviting people over and being invited too! As a proselytiser of non-violent communication, there’s only one thing that puts me off: people using excuses such as the lateness of hour, their unchecked emotions or their uncontrollable penchant for drama to create an awkward change in the atmosphere. Live and let live!

Short anecdote: When I was in Transition School, my mom asked me to welcome my new classmate Aurore C. from France. When I saw her for the first time, I walked straight up to her and boldly told her with my thick French accent: “Hi, my name is Divya, we’re friends now.” She told me later that it was a true lifeline; we’ve been best friends since. Many kids from Auroville are out-going and friendly, with a natural capacity to bond with people.

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Auroville is an international city in the making; we have over 50 different nationalities here. Between my classmates, my neighbours and my teachers, I can count up to 15 nationalities! This place also attracts countless volunteers, youth doing their civil service, guests and “newcomers” from around the world. The constant movement of people allowed me to meet new people, but many would up and leave very fast too. This affected many of us long term, and with time I caught myself being rather detached in new friendships, as I was never sure when their “expiry date” was.

Auroville has always had a special bond with Tibet. The Dalai Lama came for the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Tibetan Pavilion here. I was seven, did not grasp the solemnity of the situation, and was running around madly when I bumped into him, in full swing. All I remember was that he caught me by the shoulder to stop me from falling flat on the ground and – putting his hand on my head – said something about my budding passion for mathematics. Well, I’ve always loved maths, so I guess he was right! We also had a Rinpoche spend several months with us and he was in my class since we were around the same age. I think he was shocked at how wild we were as kids. Fun times.

My classmates basically constituted my friend group: we’d see each other all day at school, do sports together in the afternoon, often had sleepovers and birthdays to celebrate. They were also my partners in crime: three of us hid in an abandoned house for a few hours while our parents organised search parties; once the entire class exited the bus that was driving us to our Art class in Last School and chilled at our favourite hang-out spot instead; my best friend and I regularly played truant when it came to sports – until my mom found out and gave us a solid dressing-down.

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Aurovilian music composer Anandi Sala Casanova once described Auroville in an upbeat and fun song that was performed by the Auroville Choir. One sentence in this song truly resonates deep within me: “Soily toes, red earth, dusty soft paths.” A characteristic of this region is its fine red earth that daily colours our feet and insidiously turns all our white clothes orange. When I was a child, we used to cycle and walk a lot, so our feet would get dirty; it only got worse after doing sports: red from head to toe! Sliding around in the slick red mud and puddles in monsoon was also a highlight of my childhood. Having red feet and legs is for me a tell–tale sign of adventures had and things accomplished.

There was a tough unapproachable Dutch lady who had a nervous and fearful horse. Having watched The Horse Whisperer, I was delighted that she agreed to let me accompany her in the quest to tame it. Through this, she and I became friends and spent a lot of time brainstorming new things we could do with the horse to win its trust. I was 14, she was twice that, but that didn’t prevent me from sharing my thoughts, or her from taking them into account.

Horse riding was by far my favourite sports, I started when I was seven. The best thing that happened to me back then was my grandmother offering to pay for a pony that then became ‘mine’. His name was Magic and we used to gallop around the forests. Having my own horse made me learn to be more responsible and conscientious. Magic loved to buck me off, after which he’d come to a screeching halt and look at me with a bewildered look like “What are you doing on the floor?” After falling off and scratching or bruising myself time and time again, I learned to stay on. This obviously really helped me improve my riding skills.

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My parents clearly explained to me that the chance I learn from their mistakes was very slim, and therefore I needed to make my own – to learn from them, of course. The only rule was: Take care. This freedom really allowed me to learn to fly with my own wings, thus allowing me to become independent and responsible quite early on. This was the attitude of most parents, so many of us were little daredevils that regularly put our limits to the test.

My favourite playground was nature: my friends and I would climb trees, race around, swim in the sea and catchment areas, eat berries, fruits and flowers found in our forests, steal peanuts from our neighbouring farmers’ fields, play very active games, etc. As a child here, material things did not provide distraction: I never had a TV at home, computers and cell phones only came into my life in my late teens, I didn’t have a single toy that wasn’t a hand-me-down. I anyway preferred fully dismantling them to understand how they worked rather than actually playing with them! Capitalism, consumerism, fashion had not yet crept into our lives, we were wild and free.

This calling for adventure obviously allowed to me to also quickly understand the consequences of some of my choices, and better grasp what my limitations were. Along the way, I got five stitches under my chin, broke my arm, fell off a horse straight onto a tree, and got bitten by a monkey, several dogs and numerous horses… but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

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When I was in Transition School, we had a class called Awareness Through the Body (ATB). On the Auroville website, this is how they describe ATB: “What was intended as a program to improve the posture of the children, quickly evolved into a program to help children develop their capacity for attention, concentration and relaxation, while enhancing their ability for self-awareness and their sense of responsibility.”

Through various modules and activities, we became more conscious of our bodies (how much space do I occupy, how do I move, do I feel pain or discomfort somewhere in my body, what are my strengths and weaknesses) and our minds (what mood am I in and why, what aura am I diffusing, can I use my breathing and body posture to change my energy). We were encouraged to explore and hone our physical skills thanks to fun exercises using balance, teamwork, cooperation, synchronisation and different materials and textures. My classmates and I were a bunch of superactive kids, so this really helped us explore and focus, while having fun! I still use yoga nidra on a very regular basis to reconnect to myself.

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Having grown up learning to regularly and consciously check up on myself on the physical plane (ATB), the next step that came very naturally was to do the same with the psyche. With guidance from teachers and adults, I became more conscious about my behaviour and actions: the aim becomes to take a stand with assertiveness; to treat everyone with equality and genuine respect; to not give up too easily and improve further; to not attribute a lot of worth to fame, money and material goods; and to strive for more significant aspects of life such as communication, joy and sharing.

Having studied, travelled and worked elsewhere than in Auroville for nine years, I can safely say that the only place where my all-out honesty is fully accepted is here. As long as thoughts and ideas are expressed with respect and compassion, I truly believe that it should be the base of any communication and interaction if one wants it to remain pure and true. We can, of course, agree to disagree, but without honesty, all discussion loses its essence.

This excessive honesty also gave me the illusion that others were truthful when they spoke too, which has always resulted in me being a little gullible. Between that and my readiness to accept challenges, I often ended up doing silly things, like engraving a peace sign on the glass windows of our classroom. I also shaved off my eyebrows once and was mortified when people told me that they wouldn’t grow back. Thankfully, they did!

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It was only when I “left” Auroville and went to the French high school in Pondicherry that I realised how different the mentality and approach to youth is in the occidental world. Patriarchy, manners, hypocrisy, racism, misogyny, performance, stress were notions I either hadn’t discovered or hadn’t fully understood until then.

Despite always presenting an open defiance towards authority, I have numerous fond memories linked with all Aurovilian adults and I always respected them: during our last year in Transition School, we had a potluck and sleepover at Mary’s house; we had also gone for a sleepover/star-gazing night with Jana in a semi-desert location not far from Auroville; every summer many of us would go camping in Berigam for 12 days with camp leaders and other adults, we’d swim in the lake, go hiking in the forests, fetch water from the natural spring and learn how to take care of our own things.

Adults were there for us: just after the monkey bite, I was in shock and went to the closest neighbour’s house for help. Having assessed the situation, he saw that all I needed was to cool down, so he cooked me some sunny-side-up duck eggs. I remember this very clearly because the utter shock of seeing such huge eggs took the pain away. Isn’t life beautiful?

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We were not rich but never went hungry. For example, my visits to Europe were always financed by family that lived there, mostly my grandmother. The simplicity of life in the villages around Auroville allowed me to keep things in perspective. The smallest things have always made me very happy, I’ve kept and nurtured this childish readiness for awe and joy brought about by the most “trifling” of situations: a beautiful sunset, a flower in bloom, the smell of horses, someone laughing, a stranger’s smile, morning dew. Ice cream was a definite highlight of my first visit to family in Europe: both in Germany and in France, at the advanced age of two, I regularly proclaimed loud and clear: “ICE CREAM!”

My expectations were thus quite low when I later went to study in France and had only enough money for bare necessities. My new friends there said that I reminded them of the protagonist in the film Un indien dans la ville (Little Indian, Big City): little “Indian” girl discovering the big city with a naïve and childish curiosity, barefoot whenever possible. I cherish this likeness and cultivate my barefoot inner child.

In conclusion, growing up in Auroville is retrospectively the best thing that ever happened to me as it gave me the freedom to be me.

A road, full of holes.

Up in trees, like monkeys.

Run after a horse, race it.

Oh! The heat, it stings.

Veils of vines, hiding something.

In and out a dam!

Luxury of nature,

Lift me up and away,

End all sadness and pain.

Author: myself, 13 years, in Transition School.