Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988
Nov 2022 (35 months ago) Download PDF (free download)
Feature — Authored by Peter
In November 1988, thirty-four years ago, Auroville Today began life, and this month marks our 400th issue. Peter Lloyd, one of our most loyal subscribers and a recent addition to our editorial team gives his reflection.
A conversation with Nahar — Questions by Gita
Nahar Emet, now 22, was nine years old when he came to Auroville with his family. He attended Deepanam, TLC, and Last School, and then worked as CRIPA’s light and sound designer before joining the Youth Centre team. Two years ago, he and another youth began developing Kajimba as a food manufacturing activity to create interesting and flexible job opportunities for their juniors and peers.
A conversation with Marc — Questions by Carel
Marc Tormo Altimira is Auroville’s coffee entrepreneur, roaster, brewer and consultant. His journey started in Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 23, when he and his wife Matilde opened a few cafe boutiques. In 1996 they joined Auroville, and, as he says, ‘started all over again’. They launched Marc’s Coffees, a coffee brand dedicated to promote specialty, gourmet and sustainable coffees, and in 2008 opened Marc’s Cafe, a coffee shop on the Kuilapalayam-Auroville Road and later the Dreamer’s Café at the Visitors Centre.
A conversation with Daniel Emden and Sheril — Questions by Carel
Daniel Emdin first came to live in Auroville in 1977, after a career as a radio journalist and an art dealer in Paris and as a pizzeria manager in Italy. He left in 1981, did “a number of other jobs” and returned for good in 2004, then got involved in many working groups. Today he is known as one of Auroville’s most successful entrepreneurs. He runs four ‘Tanto’ (meaning ‘abundance’) restaurants, known for their high quality Italian food, also a laundry service and, together with his wife Sheril, takes care of the Sri Ma beach retreat.
From the editors — Authored by Peter
Peter reflects on many months of keeping the council office in the Town Hall available for the Auroville Council.
A look at the exhibition — Words by Chandra
In mid October, Aurovilian Frederic Martin Duchamp presented ‘Presence and Flow’, an exhibition of photographs from different parts of the world at the Centre d’Art in Citadines. For him, ‘presence and flow are deeply rooted in the act of dance. This exhibition wants to be a celebration of these states of Being that we all can experience through movement and music.
On the 25th of August, Charles Zanon opened his sculpture exhibition ‘Unexpected’, at the Auroville Botanical Gardens, where he showcased a collection of pieces in black granite that he had been working on over the past year.
Book review
Paulette has published an interesting new compilation in celebration of Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary. ‘Crossroad: A New Humanity’ contains extracts from “The Human Cycle”, “The Ideal of Human Unity” and “War and Self Determination”.
Book review — Authored by Peter
Every so often a story comes along that captures the spirit of Auroville in a unique way, bringing to light aspects of its deeper purpose of transforming the world we live in to create a spiritualized life on our planet. ‘New Earth’ is one such story, captured in a colourful coffee table book with hundreds of vivid flower mandala images accompanied by a few short texts. Conceived and photographed by Avigal Lemberger, the book is intended as a meditative opening to the language and significance of flowers and mandalas.
A conversation with Avigal — Questions by Peter
I do not want people to feel they have to read cover to cover, the purpose is to get a feel of it. At the end of the book are tiny mandalas, an endless world. We have a website where we post a daily mandala picture. They are evolving all the time. I really wish I could understand a fraction of it. I am there as a vessel and not so important in this process.
The Chairman visits Auroville The Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu and Chairman of the Governing Board, Shri R N Ravi, visited Auroville on 18th and 19th of October, 2022...
Visit of Union Minister of Education On 2nd October, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited Auroville...
General Meeting of RA working groups The four main working groups of the Residents’ Assembly (Working Committee, Auroville Council, Town Development Council, and the Funds and Assets Management Committee selected by the Residents' Assembly) met with residents at a well attended meeting on 17th October to update them on the current situation and their work, and to answer questions...
Register of Residents survey On September 28th, the Foundation appointed Working Committee announced that a house-to-house survey of Auroville would take place over the following two weeks...
Letters of recommendation / visa update A small group of people have been given letters or recommendation for very short time periods (for example, 3 months instead of 5 years) seemingly for holding opposing views to the Foundation Office...
BCC loses control of Auroville’s finances On 14th October, the RA Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) announced that they “no longer have any control or oversight over Auroville’s City Services budget” as their access to the Financial Services has been removed...
Stop cash payments The Foundation FAMC has announced that all units, services, activities have to stop receiving cash payment...
Beyond mandate? The RA approved Housing Board has also been removed from their positions, and have been locked out of the Housing Google accounts as well as the Housing Service office...
House-sitting changes The Foundation appointed Housing Service announced that from now on house sitting arrangements will be made exclusively between Aurovilians-Aurovilians and Aurovilians-newcomers...
New development plans The Foundation appointed TDC/L’Avenir announced they are in the process of designing the new Sunshine Housing Project, a low-density project in the Gaia/Grace area, and invited people to apply to join the project...
Imbalance? In their September report the Foundation appointed FAMC stated that they wished to address a perceived “systemic fault and … imbalance towards the building of the City the Earth Needs” which, they claim, exists because forests and farms receive a higher number of maintenances than the ATDC...
Crown Road work restarted The Foundation appointed FAMC explained that the Crown work continues under the supervision of CPWD and L’avenir d’Auroville, and is planned to be finished as per schedule...
Clearing of cycle paths On 30th September and 1st October, a JCB accompanied by an engineer from the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and a survey team started clearing a 2...
Varuna to adjust electricity scheme The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has increased rates for almost all services provided to its various subscribers...
PTPS transition completed On 7th October Pour Tous Purchasing Service completed a year of transitioning to becoming an Auroville service...
Dreamweaving movie and discussion On 1st October the Dreamweaving team invited the community for a documentary screening and panel discussion on the recent ‘Dreamweaving the Crown’...
New degree course offered The Auroville Institute of Applied Technology at Aurobrindavan campus is now taking admission of students who have passed 10+2 or equivalent for its Bachelor degree courses (B...
YouthLink offers tech help YouthLink are aware of how difficult it can be to keep up with the ever growing world of technology...
Auroville at the Lisbon Triennale The Auroville project, the city designed by Roger Anger, occupies the first room of the “Visionaries” exhibition at the Lisbon Triennale...
Ami/Evergreen contested land The case around the Ami/Abri/Evergreen contested was listed in Court on Thursday, 20th of October...
In remembrance of
Francis Malan of Citadines peacefully left his body in the morning of Wednesday 5 October while listening to ‘A New Birth’, told by the Mother. He was sitting outside on the terrace looking out over the garden of Marika's Home where he had been taken several days ago after suffering a stroke. He was 81. Hailing from France, Francis was visiting Auroville since 2006 and made it his home in 2009, officially joining in 2011. He was always happy to help in many ways: teaching French and mathematics, supporting educational projects and his many friends. He particularly loved the Matrimandir where he spent many hours on duty, meditating or walking. Until very recently, he would go every morning to watch the sunrise at the Amphitheatre and in the evening to see the sunset there as well. Francis’s body remained in Farewell during the week and was cremated at the Auroville mandapam on Monday October 10th.
