Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988
Feb 2023 (32 months ago) Download PDF (free download)
Feature story — Reported by Alan
Feature story — Reported by Peter
In amongst Auroville’s current governance schism, there are a few initiatives taking place to find a way through to an opening to something higher to unite us all. Heartweaving, in which a small group is participating, has come out of Raghu’s work (AV Today issue 402). In addition, there are less publicized initiatives such as Breathwork trainings, Partho’s retreat as well as dances that are being offered to help the community shift the energy of our current political impasse.
A Q&A with Natasha — Interview conducted by Peter
Natasha Storey is a long term Aurovilian who recently brought the Gene Keys and its Delta programme to Auroville
Impressions from the event — Words by Peter
Auroville is a place of experimentation where the new can emerge and ‘something else’ can flourish. On January 19 and 20, in CRIPA, 70 children from Auroville schools, including Deepam school for children with disabilities and Auroville outreach schools, performed a one-of-a-kind co-creation titled ‘Every Soul is Unique’. Fakeera, who created and led the experiment, introduced the evening by saying, “It’s not about performance or theatre. You will see a perfect imperfection on stage today. You will love it.”
Feature story — Reported by Ok
Ok Upcycling Studio, located in the Re-Centre building in Auroville, recently opened its doors to an innovative, upcycled lighting design exhibition, ‘Illuminating 2023’. With a focus on designing light, upcycling waste, and exploring value via a silent auction, a collection of over 30 lighting products were showcased. Most of them were hand-made with discarded materials sourced at EcoService.
A Q&A with Massimo — Interview conducted by Chandra
Massimo, a master cheese maker from Valle d’Aosta with decades of experience gathered in this art from across Italy, moved to Auroville with his partner Monica and three children in 2008. They have been living here since, and together run the cheese factory entirely by themselves.
Open letter — Written by Julietta
Initially created as a sub-group of Third-Age (under Mattram’s umbrella), the “Let’s Talk About Death” group aims to reach any age of Auroville’s population by providing time, space and content to talk freely about death. We have met several times to ponder upon how we want to do this and what platform we want to offer to Auroville. In our research we stumbled upon something called a ‘Death Cafe’. What is needed to hold a ‘Death Cafe’ is a venue, a facilitator and most importantly, cake. We now have it all.
Feature story — Reported by Neha
Since the unit’s launch in 2010 with the large-scale Litter Free Auroville Campaign, WasteLess has featured several times in the pages of Auroville Today. In Sept 2012 (Issue 278), they had just developed Garbology, a toolkit to teach solid waste management to school children of all ages. In April 2019 (Issue 357), elements of their kNOw PLASTICS curriculum had been written into Tamil Nadu’s government school textbooks. And in Oct 2019 (Issue 363), they themselves reported on the Climate Strike, World Clean Up Day and Plastic Brand audit organised by Auroville youth in collaboration with Auroville units working on waste management and reduction. Over the years, WasteLess has maintained a steady momentum, building on their own experience and process to formulate more robust and more ambitious means to tackle waste reduction, particularly through fun, accessible, and impactful school-based programmes. Here WasteLess team member Neha writes about the unit’s newest curriculum called Sea Change. Focused on microplastics and the latest science of marine plastic pollution, the programme was launched in October 2022 by the Tamil Nadu Minister of Education. Sea Change is supported by the School Education Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, and funded in part by the National Geographic Society.
A personal reflection — Written by Alan
Most people believe that order requires control, and that it cannot result from a lack of control, or even anarchy. Nietzsche considered ‘Apollonian’ order and ‘Dionysian’ disorder polar opposites, and even Einstein, the disruptor of so much received scientific knowledge, could not accept the ‘disorderliness’ of the quantum world, famously exclaiming that ‘God does not play dice with the universe’. However, recent research, particularly in the realms of biology, quantum mechanics and chaos theory, suggest the very opposite: that order can arise spontaneously out of what we term ‘chaos’, and that ‘disorder’, or even the total breakdown of a system, is often necessary for new things to manifest or a higher kind of order to emerge.
A personal reflection — Written by Bindu
I am, for the most part, a creature of Time. The days race by with me following the clockwork of the hours that determine when I work, eat, play, and rest. Life, as I am sure many of us have experienced, can be a treadmill.
G20 meeting in Auroville After India assumed the presidency of the G20 during 2023, the Union Government planned to organise around 200 events across India...
Governing Board Meeting The 62nd meeting of the Governing Board took place on 27th December in Raj Bhavan, Chennai...
Visa Matters In her New Year address to the community, the Secretary clarified that out of the 1065 recommendation letters that had been issued, 993 had been issued for the period requested by the applicant...
Krishna Das in Auroville There are plans for Krishna Das, the well-known mantra musician, to offer a live chanting event in the Amphitheatre on 12th February to launch the ‘Science and spirituality’ summit...
FO BCC report In the current financial year, the FO BCC reported we have a deficit of around 50 lakhs per month and our reserves are low...
Concerns about disbursement The RA selected Working Groups expressed concerns that certain individuals associated with the Office of the Secretary are ‘usurping the role and functions’ of the Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) constituted under the Funds and Assets Management Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly (RA)...
Project leaders wanted The FO FAMC announced that they have identified ten key areas that need dedicated full time project leaders to take them forward under its direct guidance...
New housing policy Regarding housing, the FO FAMC stated that from now on all Aurovilians must work only with the Housing Service for the allocation and use of the residential asset/premises for their own use...
Muyerchi youth housing Most of the residents of Surrender have written an open letter expressing their concern that youth residents of Muyerchi house in Surrender have been informed by the FO Housing Service to vacate the building by 8th January, due to the claim that renovations are needed...
Checking housing parameters The FO L’avenir d’Auroville / ATDC reports it is now fully focused on implementing and realising the Galaxy Master Plan...
News and Notes threatened The News and Notes editors have been publishing reports from both the Foundation Office (FO) supported groups and those selected by the Residents Assembly...
Legal matters The RA Working Committee stated, “It has come to our knowledge that an unknown group of people referring to themselves as ‘AVF Legal’ has been sending threatening communications to residents over the past few weeks”...
Survey on restorative process In October the RA selected groups sought to get a sense of the community’s feelings and thoughts on the topic of starting a restorative process between the Residents’ Assembly (RA), Governing Board (GB), and International Advisory Council (IAC)...
Aurovilians to Aurovilians Some participants in the Wednesday meeting in the Tibetan Pavilion have been meeting with members of FO-appointed groups as ‘Aurovilians to Aurovilians’ in an attempt to touch something deeper, beyond the barrier of defensive arguments...
Kalabhumi meeting and community get together On Friday 20th January, around 500 residents participated in a meeting which had the intention, as the organizers put it, to co-create a space to review the past year, reflect on the present and revive our collective strength and action, and find practical steps and actions that can be taken now to “walk a few steps in the direction we want to see, while addressing today’s priorities”...
FO Working groups open meeting The FO Working Committee, ATDC and FAMC invited residents to an open meeting on 24th January at Unity Pavilion where they shared a report of their work as well as updates on a number of topics and forthcoming events...
Multi-disciplinary forum The Multi-disciplinary forum has begun meeting again...
Selection process 2023 The 2023 selection process concluded on 29th January...
Disappointing monsoon The North East monsoon, which normally brings our heaviest rainfall, fell short this year...
Potters’ market The sixth edition of the Auroville International Potters’ Market was held from January 26th-28th at the Visitors Center...
In remembrance of
On 24 January Christian Edet passed away in his Promesse home at the age of 62. Born at Noumea, New Caledonia, Christian came at the age of 46 to Auroville in 2006 and was accepted as an Aurovilian in 2007. During the last 15 years he lived in Promesse. Starting out with working at Matrimandir, he then worked and lived at Sadhana Forest where he was a quiet, hardworking and appreciated member of the community. In his later years he was active as a gardener in Promesse, and instrumental in the cleaning up of the northern side of Promesse, where village waste had been dumped for decades. Living mostly in his own world and not socialising much, residents mainly remember him from his bicycle rides over the large distances between Promesse, Sadhana Forest, Kuilyapalayam and elsewhere and back, - usually wearing a flower behind his ear.
Matriprasad passed away at the age of 65 in his apartment in Prayatna. His body was found around noon on 26 January; he had earlier informed his colleagues that he felt unwell and wouldn’t come to work for a few days. The cremation of his remains took place at the Auroville Cremation grounds in the afternoon of the next day. Matriprasad (Marco Zaccanti) came to Pondicherry and Auroville for the first time in 1978 with a group of friends from Italy. In the mid-80s he settled in Auroville in the Existence community and was active with forestry work, the Auroville Council and the Entry Board, of which he was presently a member. He was a silent and persevering presence who will be missed by his friends, colleagues and all those who knew him. Our condolences go out to his family in Italy and to Ana and her daughters, Jivatma and Amrita, for whom he was a true father figure during his years in Existence. As they put it, “He has been a dearly loved member of our family since our arrival in Auroville and has made our lives brighter with his warmth and affection, his quiet wisdom, and his irrepressible wit, playfulness, and humour. His memory will always remain in our hearts, as will the strength of his faith and commitment to Auroville’s ideals.”
In remembrance of — Words by Mona Doctor-Pingel
The passing away of B V Doshi on 24 January 2023, marks the end of an era for Indian architecture. Aged 95 (1927-2023) he lived a full life and was conferred the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India – Padma Vibhushan – a day after he passed away. In 2018, he also became the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, regarded as the unofficial Nobel Prize for architecture. I have had the privilege to know him since my student days at school of architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, and over the years I have been very fortunate to receive some of his gems of wisdom on life and architecture, especially when he was member of the Governing Board and Chairman of the Auroville Town Development Council from 2010 onwards for a number of years. Doshi aged like good wine – keeping absolutely fit till almost the last days, sharing his insights on life generously, being always available, curious and ready to meet young people and interact with them. One felt that in fact Doshi internalised while externalising his thoughts! He sought out good critics and enjoyed a good debate. He believed in simplicity, yet was sophisticated; had a child-like curiosity and yet was very pragmatic; he saw the infinite in the finite and the infinite in the finite! Even the last weeks when he was suffering from kidney failure with strict instructions not to be admitted to any hospital, he was happy to receive students and young architects. Doshi was a consummate story teller and his narratives questioned the mysteries of nature, celebration of life and values that sustain an individual within a community. In fact he once told me that “without a good story there is no good architecture!” His growing family with grandchildren and great grandchildren, many of who are architects, was a great source of strength and joy for him. Most of all his camaraderie with his wife Kamuben was a special delight to see in the last decades. He will continue to enrich, baffle and inspire us through his legacy of buildings and writings. I would like to end this small obituary to an iconic legend with a quote by him: “Remember, without dark night there can never be sunrise, don’t just think only of sunrise and smile or think of only the darkest night and imagine death. They are both a part of you. Accept nature and find the positive and think of it as a journey.”
