Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988

Issue Nº401

Dec 2022 (35 months ago)
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The Golden Light – Paintings inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s poems

Art review, By Chandra

Krishna

Jyoti Khare recently opened an exhibition at the Unity Pavilion, consisting of twelve paintings inspired by twelve poems by Sri Aurobindo.

The Chairman addresses the residents

Feature, By Shri RN Ravi

Photo: Auroville Media Interface

The Chairman of the Governing Board and Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri R.N Ravi, accompanied by three members of the Governing Board, Smt.

The hidden order

Reflection, By Alan

Today, more than ever, we need to trust that that Force is active here, and that we can contact it. For it means that what is happening now has a purpose, and those who are here now are meant to be here; that for the moment we are the perfect ingredients for something that needs to be worked out through the ‘pressure of consciousness’ which is exerted upon all of us.

The pandemic’s effect upon the local villages

An interview with Anbu, By Alan

Anbu

A recent British Academy report on the U.K. post-pandemic situation concluded that “We are in a COVID decade: the social, economic and cultural effects of the pandemic will cast a long shadow into the future... there are a set of deeper impacts on health and wellbeing, communities and cohesion, and skills, employment and the economy which will have profound effects upon the U.K. for many years to come”.

Surveying Local Sacred Groves

Feature, By Peter

Mitragyna parvifolia

One of Auroville’s success stories has been the greening and transformation of severely denuded and eroded land to what is now a diverse, rich and, in pockets, thriving woodlands.

Sri Aurobindo: The Grand Synthesis

Book review, By Carel

Cover - Sri Aurobindo: The Grand Synthesis

On November 3rd, Dr. Ananda Reddy released his new book Sri Aurobindo: The Grand Synthesis at a function in Unity Pavilion in the presence of the Vice Chancellor of the Pondicherry University Prof.

Strange times: a review of the Auroville population 2022

From the margins, By Peter

Population Demographics overview 2019-2022

Normally the population review is a prosaic, gentle piece to write, padding out a statistical survey by noticing subtle quirks, long-term trends and trying our best to bring the figures to life.

Yuvabe: Work – Serve - Evolve

A profile of Sriman Kota and Anupama Jagadeesh, By Gita

Yuvabe team

Sriman Kota and Anupama Jagadeesh both arrived in Auroville four years ago and happened to meet some time later at STEM Land while exploring how they could best contribute their energies and skills to Auroville.

In memoriam - Robert (Bob) Lawlor

Feature

Robert Lawlor

Robert (Bob) Lawlor passed away peacefully on 29 November in the hospital on King Island, Tasmania at the age of 84. After studying Art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bob discovered the Sri Aurobindo Ashram during his world travel in the 60s.

Legal updates On 13th October, the Madras High Court dismissed a Writ Petition challenging the validity of an Office Order issued by the Governing Board reconstituting the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC).

AV Community Gathering Team meets Chairman On 31st October, some members of the AV Community Gathering Team attended a meeting in Chennai with the Chairman of the Governing Board, Shri RN Ravi.

Deep Dialogue for Harmony On 21st November residents were invited to the Unity Pavilion to see a video presentation by Raghu Ananthanarayanan, who had been invited by the GB and IAC to “foster a dialogue that will hopefully help address some of the core issues dividing the community, a dialogue that an outside, neutral voice can best foster”.

Survey on possible restorative process The RA Working Groups have launched a survey via mass bulletin to know the community’s thoughts on the possibility of starting a restorative process between the RA, GB, and IAC.

Event to bring the community together For a few years, YouthLink have organized events to bring the community together. Last month they hosted a vegan potluck and a Blind Babble game session to help people connect.

Company for elderly residents An Aurovilian has issued an appeal for people to come forward to form a team to support elderly Aurovilians who have been particularly impacted by the current turmoil.

PRISMA publishes Braille To commemorate Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth year, PRISMA has published large-format Braille versions of A Dream and Aims and Ideals of Auroville and these have been sent to fifty centres for the visually-impaired across India.

Seized statues The RA Working Committee clarified that reports in the press that there were deliberate attempts by Auroville residents to engage in illegal activities relating to possession of statues were false.

Coastal restoration On 3rd November, Dr Ravichandran, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt of India, visited Auroville along with Dr Ramanamurthy, Director of National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), to discuss the restoration of the eroded coast.

Wasteless launches Sea Change In a first-of-its-kind initiative, WasteLess, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu government, on 4th November rolled out an educational programme for government school students to raise awareness about microplastics and marine pollution.

Revelation forest tree planting programme This monsoon, Revelation Forest is offering a tree planting programme, including practical tree planting skills and the theoretical aspects of tree planting.

Botanical Gardens in Australia Paul from Botanical Gardens was recently at the 7th Global Conference of Botanical Gardens organized by Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) in Melbourne.

Annapurna’s elevated pond Annapurna Farm has created an elevated pond on top of a hill. The hill was made from soil dug up in 2018 to double the size of the farm’s existing irrigation ponds, and so expand its rainwater harvesting capacity and depend less on groundwater.

Sustainable land use planning Since a couple of years, Auroville Consulting has been looking for scalable solutions for climate action. One of the ones they have developed is a carbon converter which anybody can use to calculate their transport emissions, with an added option to plant trees and offset the same.

Electromagnetic radiation The Centre for Building Biology is conducting a survey to map the current levels of electromagnetic radiation in Auroville. The data will be inserted into the CSR Geomatics’ database and visualized on a related web GIS portal reachable at gis.avcsr.org.

Arulvazhi yoga prizes The students of Arulvazhi (school of Yoga and learning activities) won 14 prizes, out of which 8 stood for excellence in yoga, among 300 participants at the State level yoga competition in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, on 15 October 2022.

Tara Jauhar award On 21st October, Tara Jauhar, who for many years has been the chairman of the Delhi Ashram, which is often frequented by Aurovilians, was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) in recognition of her work in the field of education.

New procurement service The Foundation ATDC / L’avenir d’Auroville is creating an Auroville Procurement Service to provide all the construction materials and home appliances for building projects in Auroville.

Foundation BCC update Among other things, the Foundation BCC is currently reviewing maintenance, Temporary Out of Station and Silver Fund policies. From mid December they expect to reach out to the services that generally are supported by the BCC for their 2023-2024 budgetary needs.

New zones In Auroville Tomorrow no. 5, Anupama Kundoo, the head of Urban Design at the ATDC, introduced a proposal for independent transport networks in the city tied to the Crown.

‘Red assets’ to be demolished A number of assets have been built over the years in areas that are deemed reserved for other purposes according to the Master Plan. These areas include the Crown and the Outer Ring Road.

Housing matters The FA Housing Service recently announced that a dedicated team will be visiting communities to speak with residents. Community members can discuss any ongoing activities/plans that they are carrying out and if there are any challenges.

Possible land exchange in AuroOrchard A concerned resident of AuroOrchard recently reported having heard “that up to 7 acres of prime roadside land of AuroOrchard were going to be exchanged with 9 acres in the city, to consolidate lands in the Master Plan area”.

RA TDC on proper planning The RA TDC reports that they are meeting with technical persons and people with planning experience to bring together an informed road map for Auroville’s planning and development.

Road map for development Two members of the International Advisory Council wrote to the Working Committee of the Residents Assembly stressing the need for a road map for development to be presented “as a comprehensive vision, which integrates not only urban development, but the economic, environmental, educational and social development of the bioregion, for which Auroville has already made so much commendable work…

Matching donation for services and outreach projects Auroville International USA has helped many Auroville projects set up unique donor portals that allow them to collect donations in any currency through GooglePay, PayPal, Apple Pay, and credit card.