Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988
Aug 2014 (134 months ago) Download PDF (free download)
In-depth feature — Words by Alan and Carel
The term of office of Shri N. Bala Baskar, IAS (retd.) the Secretary to the Auroville Foundation, will end on August 16th. He had been Secretary from 1996 till 2001, and rejoined the Auroville Foundation on March 8th, 2012. Here he speaks about his experience during his second term.
In-depth feature — Words by Anjani and Dayanand
Little is known about those early days before Auroville’s inauguration, when land purchase and the first Auroville developments were started by the Sri Aurobindo Society. Here are some memories of Dayanand, who, after resigning from the Indian Forest Service, was involved with land purchase from 1964 to 1976, and of his wife Anjani, (an IAS officer) who, from 1967 to 1973, was Chief-Secretary of Pondicherry.
In-depth feature — Words by Gilles Guigan
Records of Auroville’s history during Mother’s lifetime are found in periodicals (Mother India, the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, the Information Letter of the Sri Aurobindo Society and the Gazette Aurovilienne), in books published by disciples (Satprem, Shyam Sunder, Huta, Savitra), in archives (Sri Aurobindo Society, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville), in personal archives as well as in published and unpublished interviews of disciples (Roger Anger and others). Gilles Guigan, one of the Aurovilians engaged in the study of the early history of Auroville, shares some of his findings.
In-depth feature — Words by Lesley
Temperate July evenings are usually the perfect setting for outdoor functions in and around Auroville. But when the skies open and wash out a performance and its audience of 125 people, it says much about an organisation’s professionalism that it can bundle the audience, projector and sound system into the nearby building, and have the show up and running again in a mere five minutes. Yatra Multimedia’s screening of its most recent films demonstrated that the organisation embodies the old show business adage: “The show must go on.”
In-depth feature — Words by Inge van Alphen
In September 2009, the first meeting for “Landscaped Spaces” took place in Auroville. It followed a proposal by Mr. Doshi, the Chairperson of Auroville’s Town Development Council, to create interesting public spaces at various Auroville locations for people to gather and socialize. This included areas for art performances, places for families, tea stalls, farmer’s markets, and public art installations. But unfortunately, the project didn’t advance very far.
Extreme weather In the fourth week of June, 2014, the thermometer reached 41 degree Celsius for three consecutive days...
Last school moves After a period of 30 years, Last School has finally moved from the Last School compound near Aspiration into new premises between Kalabhumi and Future School...
Recommended fees for Auroville building projects The Funds and Assets Management Committee, which is mandated to review the financial viability of proposed public buildings and housing projects, has stated that henceforth all projects in excess of Rs...
Land donations Kalya, a Tamil Aurovilian and executive of Progress Landscape and also working for the Town Development Council, has offered 3...
Pyramids for NESS science teaching The New Era Secondary School (NESS) has been granted approval from the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) for the introduction of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Computer Science to the curriculum with effect from April 1st, 2014...
Graphic novel about Sri Aurobindo Chandigarh filmmaker Gaurav Chhabra is currently undertaking a 6 months artist’s residency at Kala Kendra...
Auroville Festival in Chennai Following the successful Auroville Festival in Delhi in 2012, the Governing Board, in their meeting of November 2013, has approved a similar event to be held in Chennai as many state government officials are unaware that Auroville is in Tamil Nadu and what it actually does...
Auromode Atelier closed Auromodè Atelier has close due to the high competition for ready-made garments for export, as a result of which the unit has been badly performing for the last three years...
Extension of the electricity-in-kind scheme The Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) has agreed that Varuna, Auroville, an Auroville unit that operates two wind generators owned by the Auroville Foundation, will cover the electricity bills of all grid-connected residents receiving a City-Services maintenance and those who pay the full monthly contribution of Rs...
Land issues The Land Resource Management team reported that in the period of March to May 2014 it had been doing 25 land surveys and dealt with a number of boundary disputes and plot fencing issues, land disputes, a land encroachment including the manhandling of the steward, land access issues and a number of court cases dealing with land issues...
Police patroling The BCC has asked community feedback on the police patrolling in Auroville in view of the high costs of security...
In memoriam: — Story by Dharmesh
Aurovilian of the first hour, Toshi (Santosh) Malik, wife of late Prem Malik, left her body on June 20th after a year’s illness in New Delhi. She was 86 years old. Prem and Toshi had been living in Auroville since its inauguration in 1968. Their joy of being here, their total engagement in this adventure, and their work as pioneers was known to all. After Prem passed away in 1999, Toshi continued her work at the Visitors’ Centre and in Bharat Nivas. In June this year, while visiting family in New Delhi, she was admitted to the hospital due to stomach ailments. She left the hospital soon, and was recuperating at her sister’s house in Delhi where she told Aster, “I am always walking around in Auroville. I want to be there. Take me back with you....” A silent gathering to remember Toshi took place under the Matrimandir Banyan Tree on July 11th. Auroville salutes them with love and deep gratitude for the many long years they have so wholeheartedly given to the Mother’s Dream, the city of Auroville.
In memoriam:
Jagran (Maurizio d’Angelo) passed away at AUM hospital on May 26th, 2014, in the presence of his son Sid and daughter Alice. He was 71 years old. Jagran had joined Auroville in 2009, but shortly after met with a stroke. He had also been suffering from cancer. Following a fall, he underwent a hip replacement. But Jagran, a model of life-affirming resilience, never succumbed to depression and maintained his openhearted and upbeat personality. His body was cremated at the Farewell Burial and Cremation Grounds at Adventure community.
Rakesh Tiwari, who joined Auroville in 2002, passed away on July 17th. His sudden death was due to a heart related medical condition. He was 40 years old. Rakesh has worked at Needam Guest House, the Matrimandir, and at Aurofuture (the earlier name of L’avenir d’Auroville). In 2008, he left Auroville and moved to Nice in France, where he lived with his wife Violaine. From there they worked in various developing countries in South America and, more recently, in Sudan in an effort to improve the quality of life of people living in remote areas. They were contemplating moving back to Auroville and raise their as yet unborn child there.
Danapalan, father of Aurovilians Kanniappan, Nagappan and Arumugam passed away on July 27th. He was in his eighties. Danapalan gave his land to Auroville and has been working for Auroville from the early days, starting with the Matrimandir Nursery where he was driving the first bullock cart of Auroville bringing compost from Pondicherry. In 1983, he started working with Bhavana for the Bliss garden. From there he got into afforestation, a work that he continued as watchman till 2013. While his children joined Auroville, Danapalan continued to live in Kottakarai, dedicating his life to building Auroville.
