Issue Nº338

Dr. Prema Nandakumar has written and spoken to audiences the world over about Sri Aurobindo's writings and philosophy. She is the author of many articles and books on Sri Aurobindo and on Indian culture.

Dr. Anirban Ganguly is director of the Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation in New Delhi. He is a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education and also a member of the Policy Research Department and co-convener of the Library & Documentation Department of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the months of July and August, Auroville benefitted from unexpected rains. In July 153 mm fell, against an average of 73.1= for the last 39 years.

While it is one of the youngest Auroville communities, Courage is one of the largest. It has 104 residents drawn from 16 different nationalities: 30 of the residents are under the age of 18.

The idea of Sanjana began in 2011, shortly after Gundolf had moved into one of the new apartments he had designed in the Surrender community.

Auroville’s Galaxy Plan is marked by so-called ‘Lines of Force’, long building structures. The Line of Goodwill is a project to build the longest Line of Force of the Galaxy Plan, which extends from the outer ring road near the Visitors Centre parking to the edge of the planned Matrimandir Lake.

Interestingly, when the French soldiers of the “Garde Républicaine” carried away the coffin bearing the mortal remains of Mrs. Simone Veil, the Holocaust survivor, they chanted a German song: Das Lied der Moorsoldaten.

From August 12 to 22, 2017, Bharat Nivas hosted Alpona, a festival of Bengal. The festival included an exhibition of paintings by ten women artists from Kolkata, an exhibition of textiles from Bengal, two musical evenings and screenings of Bengali films, including four by the internationally renowned director Buddhadeb Dasgupta who visited during the festival.