Issue Nº306

The undisputed master of Auroville woodworking is Japanese Aurovilian Kenji Matsumoto. But it was by chance, he says, that woodworking became his profession.

The doors are four meters high, each smoothly rotating on two ball bearings. The scene is the new Centre for Indian Culture at Bharat Nivas, the construction of which is in the finishing phases.

In 1995, Aurorachana (meaning ‘Auro Creation’) started giving a second lease of life to old and broken furniture – colonial English, Pondicherry-French and some of Chettinad style – mostly made of teak or rosewood.

The large hall on the ground floor of the Centre for Scientific Research, earlier used for researching ferro-cement technology, now houses one of the work spaces of Prakrit, the wood working unit created by Danish Aurovilian Torkil Dantzer a few years ago.

In November, the Citadines Art Gallery hosted an exhibition of the woodcraft of Auroville architect Tejaswini, made in Auroville over the past year.

After a delay of more than a year, the Auroville community has finally managed to select the members of a new Working Committee.

Question: what’s new about our 2014 population statistics? Answer: virtually nothing. The Indian population has increased by less than 3%, the German nationals number a few more, the French a few less, but these three nations still make up two thirds of our so-called ‘international’ community.

Kuilapalayam and Edayanachavady, two of Auroville’s neighbouring villages, are in the process of being cleaned up. Over the years, many local schools have created strong eco-clubs which are building environmental awareness by doing environmental programs.

Shankar, who was born in a local village, has been a member of the Auroville community for many years. Among his present responsibilities is looking after a dairy herd.