Issue Nº352-353 – In Memoriam

On the early morning of 5 November, Roza Tuh, from Moldova, left her body at the age of 77 in her Citadines apartment. She had been suffering from Melanoma (skin cancer).

Called by her love for Mother and Sri Aurobindo, Roza arrived here in 2007 and became Aurovilian two years later. Her main fields of work were the Matrimandir and Savitri Bhavan, where one would invariably find her at the gallery of Huta’s paintings on Savitri. Throughout the years, her connection with the spirit of the place grew and made her start painting as well. Each year on February 28th, Rosa would organise a gathering of Russian speakers from Auroville, the Ashram and abroad. In this context emerged the ‘Brotherhood Pavilion’ name for the common space of the Eastern Europe – Russia – Caucasus – Central Asia region in Auroville’s International Zone, as well the push for its realisation. In later years Roza started, with help from the Russian community, translating Huta’s book “Mother, You Said So…” into Russian, which may come out one of these days.

Roza’s remains were cremated at the Adventure cremation grounds on November 8th.

On November 3rd, Jan Weber peacefully passed away in the arms of Roswitha, his mother, in a hospital in Karlsruhe in Germany where he had been treated for system failure caused by a Hantavirus which he contracted during a cycle tour. He would have been 40 at the end of this month.

Jan, a qualified programmer, joined Auroville in 1998 and lived here till 2006. During that time, he helped set up Auroville’s first browsing centres in Kuilyapalayam and at La Terrace, from where many will remember him. He then worked in Aurelec, preparing the first Auroville website. From there he moved to Penta Services doing hardware as well as software work. Jan was an ardent cyclist, always helpful and those who knew him loved and appreciated him.