In memoriam - Remembering Karuna

Karuna Periyaswamy, who was born in Kuilaypalayam, was only 14 years old when he joined Auroville. As a child, he had once met The Mother at the Ashram, as part of a school visit, and offered flowers to her. His grandfather was one of the village chiefs of Kuilaypalayam. He initially stayed in Fraternity, then in Aspiration for a while, and finally settled back in Fraternity with his family.

He was partly educated in Auroville (After School), and he became a keen kabaddi, volleyball and basketball player. He worked at Aurelec for some time, and later was part of the Solar Service team for a while.

He married Uma in 1991 and had two children, Vidhya and Kishore. He also had a four month old grandson, Vihaan, with whom he spent his last months.

At Fraternity, Karuna started a small workshop, producing handicrafts items and dolls. He started with one tailor and one lady assistant, and then, in 1993, this became Discovery,

This was a garments exporting unit with about sixty employees which offered a lot of job opportunities to the surrounding villages of Kuilaypalayam, Bommayapalayam, Edayanachavady and Alankuppam. The unit specialised in silk hand painted garments and accessories.

Karuna was very actively involved in Auroville life. He was the first Tamil to start a successful export unit in Auroville. Later he expanded the business by taking over the Lotus unit (hammocks). In recent years he was managing the Discovery Guest House. He founded Discovery trust and was a trustee of Aurosarjan, and served on the Entry Group, the Working Committee and the ABC support group. He was also helping and supporting youngsters. He financially supported a lot of sports activities and he contributed to Auroville schools. For some time he was one of the executives of NESS school and of the water maintenance service.

He will be remembered as a very straightforward, skilful, organised, and hardworking person, with great willpower, and as a strong and bold person. He loved to travel the world and had travelled to the USA, England, Germany, France, and Switzerland.

For the past six years Karuna had been suffering from chronic kidney disease and was in dialysis. He passed away on the 5 December, aged sixty. His cremation took place the next day at the Adventure Burial Ground.