The speeds of Auroville

Stationary: in the still point of the Matrimandir. Fleeting but oh so welcome. 

Strolling: in the Matrimandir gardens, or walking through a forest; connecting with and opening to your surroundings.

Medium pace: a somewhat rare sighting, apart from the odd dog owner being walked. 

Ghostly fast: marathon runners preparing for their February summit, glistening, topless torsos.

Languid: the dharmic pace of our bovine friends. 

Accelerated: village dogs curled up asleep to full snarl in 0-2 seconds.

Bicycle: the natural pace of Auroville for getting around its spread-out quilt of a community. 

Bicycle speedsters: older men and women clad in lycra and fingerless gloves jumping over road bunds, in packs of four to six. 

Electric bikes: the new popular mongrel beast on the block, half bicycle, half scooter. Uses cycle lanes whilst hardly needing to pedal. Noticeably faster than a bicycle, closer to scooter speed, especially when ‘uphill’. 

Old TVS moped: bustling and noisy with obligatory fume belching storm as it starts, the trusty sire for many an old timer.

Electric scooter: slightly slower than TVS, often driven by lanky phlegmatic youths with one hand. Number plate-less and eerily quiet.

Motorbikes: fast, unless meandering pace as half the drivers have a neck cocked at 45 degrees as they talk on their mobile, weaving somewhat. Frequently occupied by whole families (one of whom can hold the phone). 

Auroville teenagers on motorbikes: (with extra option of no sound mufflers) fearfully fast and often skillful. 

Electric cars: slow tortoise-like pace. The Reva is great for getting around Auroville, but a sitting duck on the East Coast Road. 

Local cars: medium paced as the drivers know from years of inhalation the dusty legacy of a car passing you by. Often driven by those who grew up here, fed up with their parent’s austerity. Blaring funky music. 

Visiting cars: either driven slower than even a Reva, with head at 90 degrees as they warily view the safari inhabitants they have driven hours to see. On the East Coast Road with fast scattering cyclists in their wake.

Taxis: generally slow to medium within Auroville, knowing every pot hole. 

White SUVs: sensible ‘chauffeur’ pace. For politicians visiting their green belt hotels and/or real estate agents in crisply ironed spotless white lungis. Tinted windows. 

Rickshaws and delivery vans: furious weaving spurts of pace. 

Trucks and Buses on the Kuilaypalayam to Edyanchavedy tar road: full pelt ahead down the middle of the road. Get out of the way or join the hordes of squashed red coupling beetles.