Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988
Dec 2022 (34 months ago) Download PDF (free download)
A review of works — Words by Chandra
Jyoti Khare recently opened an exhibition at the Unity Pavilion, consisting of twelve paintings inspired by twelve poems by Sri Aurobindo.
In-depth feature — Story by Shri R N Ravi
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. Dr. Nirima Oza, Shri Goutam Ghosal and Shri Aravindan Neelakandan, and the Secretary Dr. Jayanti Ravi, addressed the community on 7th November. Here are some extracts from his 40 minute speech.
A conversation with Anbu — In dialogue with Alan
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”. Has the pandemic had a similar impact on the villages surrounding Auroville? We asked Anbu of the Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG) to give her view.
In-depth feature — Story by Peter
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. For the last decades most of the forests in Auroville are transitioning from the original pioneer species to the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) which has grown up in the shade of the larger pioneer trees, and which has benefitted from the bunding, water conservation and biomass build up. Nowadays greenworkers only need to go out seed collecting to bolster genetic diversity of certain species, as Auroville itself has become a TDEF seedbank.
Book review — Written by Carel
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. Gurmeet Singh and the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation Dr. Jayanti Ravi. The book is dedicated to Sri Aurobindo on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary.
Miscellany — Words by Peter
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.
A closer look at Sriman Kota and Anupama Jagadeesh — Story by Gita
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. They had both spent a number of years working in the corporate technology sector in the USA. Sriman also had a background in business and had been based in Singapore before he and his family decided to first visit and then explore a life in Auroville. Anupama had developed a special interest in education after choosing to home school her own children while living in the USA. They founded Yuvabe in 2020, supported financially by a business partnership with Quilt.AI, a Singapore- based new age marketing research and technology start-up.
In-depth feature
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. He and his then wife, Deborah, became the first pioneers in Auroville, founding in 1967 the community that Mother named ‘Forecomers’. “Mother wanted someone to be there because there were lots of great plans but nobody was actually living there at that time. This is because it was beautiful but very challenging. There were snakes and huge scorpions; every step you took you had to be careful. There was no road, no water or electricity... and here we were, two people from New York City!” There they experimented with building methods, planting trees, cultivating and consuming algae and experimenting with dance and other forms of art. They built a theatre out of palm leaves and put on amazing dance dramas for the small Auroville community and friends from Pondicherry. As another pioneer put it, “They were bright and beautiful and created in that barren nowhere land a life for themselves and others”. After their first handmade dam in Forecomers’ canyon got washed out in a cyclone, they returned in 1971 to the US to recover their health, and further study Sri Aurobindo and sacred geometry. They returned in 1973 for two more years, during which they translated The Temple of Man by French Egyptologist, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz . After leaving Auroville, Bob continued to work on The Temple of Man in the US and France and published Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice. In his later years, Robert lived on Flinders Island and King Island in Tasmania with his third wife, Joanna, and continued to study and write, including a book about Australian aboriginals called Voices of the First Day, while regularly visiting the US, giving lectures on his findings. In 2018 he revisited Auroville where he met many of his old friends and gave a talk at Pitchandikulam on his final book, A Geometry for the End of Time. In an interview with Auroville Today [issue # 344] he said, “Overall, I’m very positive about the Auroville of today. It has not yet realised the dream, but it is certainly something that is not erasable any more. Now the concept of a society based on these principles must happen in a more dispersed way.”
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...
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...
Sustainable land use planning Since a couple of years, Auroville Consulting has been looking for scalable solutions for climate action...
Electromagnetic radiation The Centre for Building Biology is conducting a survey to map the current levels of electromagnetic radiation in Auroville...
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...
New zones In Auroville Tomorrow no...
‘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...
Housing matters The FA Housing Service recently announced that a dedicated team will be visiting communities to speak with residents...
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… “We feel an urgent need for such a road map to be formulated, possibly on the basis of already existing studies or documents, i...
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...
Honouring
Ramalingam Ramachandran, the manager of Sustenance Farm, passed away on 29th November in JIPMER hospital due to post surgical complications. He was 62. Ramalingam was born in Kuyilapalayam and was involved in Auroville right from its beginnings. Initially he joined Auroville Polyester as a worker at the age of around 12. In 1982, he became an Aurovilian and lived in Fraternity. He worked on Matrimandir and then played a pivotal role in the setting up and managing of the early community kitchen in Bharat Nivas. Later, he was in-charge of the Auroville Boutique in Pondicherry. While there he helped Auroville with land encroachment at Quiet. Soon after, he was involved in protecting another adjoining land and personally took care of it. He has played a major role in creating Gokulam Farm, in collaboration with Perumal. Ramalingam has also been involved in Auroville’s organisation and was a member of different working groups and committees. Ramalingam was among the first Aurovilians who voluntarily gave the land under their stewardship for a land exchange within the Master Plan area. Going beyond personal interests, he devoted himself to the collective cause. Later he moved to the Sustenance Farm, managing the farm and the farm’s kitchen to the very last moment. He had been learning farming for 14 years under the guidance of the head of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Farms. Even when he started the kitchen at Sustenance Farm, his main objective was to provide affordable quality food to everyone. Ramalingam was a multifaceted person with diverse talents in various fields. He had a great affinity for Thiru Pugazh, a form of devotional singing, and was part of a traditional theatre group. He would often travel to far-off places to take part in Thiru Pugazh programmes. Recently, he concentrated on his far-reaching project to transform farming in Auroville from being a business to being a service for the community. He was just about to start training at Sustenance Farm for everyone interested to learn about organic farming in theory and practice so that they could take up farm lands for stewardship after this period of education. This, the last project Ramalingam which worked upon and for which he had dreamed so long, will hopefully be continued by like-minded residents and collaborators. He was a sturdy and reliable colleague and friend who will be truly missed. Ramalingam’s body was cremated on 29th November at the Auroville Burial and Cremation Ground.
