COVID-19 pandemic

It all started in September 1998. Jean-François and I were at home when a group of teenagers, familiar faces from the Auroville schools, walked in with a quiet determination.

For almost two decades, Rosa lived in Auroville, immersed in the transformative work of Awareness Through the Body (ATB). Now she is bringing ATB workshops and advanced training to South America and plans to work with educators and trauma therapists in underserved areas, providing training that facilitates trauma release and inner balance.

Jyoti Naoki Eri was born in Kyoto, Japan, to accomplished artist parents. He trained as a sculptor in Japan through a traditional apprenticeship process.

Manya Sekar, who came to Auroville in her teens, will soon start pursuing her higher education at Oberlin College in the USA. Here she talks about her experience in Auroville.

Aurodeva is an artist and art therapist born and raised in Auroville whose work displays a rich blend of creativity, introspection, and connection to his roots.

One of the main services of Auroville’s Pavilion of Tibetan Culture is hosting the Tibetan doctor with his trainees and administrative staff for three to four days a month.

After nearly three decades of engaging with Auroville (along with over 100 other ‘sustainable communities’ around the world), a twice-aborted Newcomer process (first due to Covid and then to pursue my ‘dream job’ as Director of Education at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland), and having just spent of 2.5 months there, I would like to share a few radical questions about the future of Auroville for your consideration.

On April 1st, 2024, the Auroville Boutique in Pondicherry closed its operations. More than 50 years ago – the exact date is lost in history – it was started by the visionary André Tardeil who felt that an Auroville outlet cum information office in Pondicherry was necessary.

The ERC, which has been meeting on a weekly basis since its formation in January 2024, reported that a positive and harmonious group dynamic has been established and that the group has focused on studying the Exit Review Policy which was drafted a few years ago but which was never approved by the RA.

Aurosugan was born in Auroville. After completing an MBA in hospital administration, he worked at the Aravind Eye Hospital for many years. Recently he returned to Auroville and set up a primary eye centre here with ambitious plans to eliminate blindness in Auroville and the bioregion.

A project evaluation by Aman who grew up in Auroville and at present is studying in the USA.

One of the powers of the Residents' Assembly, says the Auroville Foundation Act, is to allow the admission or cause the termination of persons in the Register of Residents in accordance with Regulations.

On a sultry May summer’s evening, after one of its communal and tasty pizza nights, the Youth Centre (YC) premiered a documentary simply titled ‘The Youth Centre’.

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”.

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.

In times of escalating health costs in India, how is Auroville’s Health Fund Scheme faring?

Lockdown restrictions in India are being lifting in increments. The Indian government has announced that certain categories of tourist visas will become available soon.

As can be read in national and international news, the pandemic has put a strain on relationships worldwide, causing spikes in break-ups and divorces around the world.

The word ‘pivot’ became the marketing buzzword of 2020 in many parts of the world. It captured the agility of businesses that could quickly change direction and move towards practical solutions to address the COVID pandemic.

Aurosugan coordinated Auroville's COVID response in the second wave, drawing on his experience in health care administration at the Aravind Eye Hospital, working together with the Auroville support team.

May 2021: empty streets, sweltering heat, very few masked people on the road… Sounds like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, right? Drone’s eye view of the roundabout, the glint of a huge inverted disco ball in the sun.

Dear Subscriber, India is in the second wave of COVID-19 and Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry have been in many weeks of lockdown. It was therefore not possible to print Auroville Today at the usual time.

In April and May 2021, India witnessed a surge in COVID-19 infections, with the country seeing over 3,50,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 daily, one of the highest one-day tallies anywhere in the world and the number of deaths was also increasing every day.

The Entry Service reported that during the entire lockdown period it was fully engaged in discharging its duties. Since June 2020, 111 Newcomers have been confirmed as Aurovilians and 49 new applicants were processed to start their Newcomer process.

“Vaccination lag in rural India points to a looming crisis” runs the May 19 front page article of The Hindu, one of India’s national newspapers.

The lockdown which began in March 2020 required schools to shift from classroom teaching to online teaching. Auroville Today interviewed Divya Lieser, a teacher in Future School, to understand the challenges of online teaching and to hear about her other perspectives on education in Auroville.

Auroville’s Institute of Integral Health Santé and the Auroville Village Action Group have issued the booklet “Nal Valvu” (Good and meaningful life), which aims at raising awareness about COVID-19 – how it spreads, how to manage the risk of infection, what Community transmission and herd immunity are, and how the Covishield vaccine effects immunity.

A year ago, in May 2020, the Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) and the Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) jointly created “Temporary Emergency Maintenances” for those Aurovilians working in activities, units or services who were no longer able to receive a maintenance from their unit or service due to the Covid-19 emergency, and were in need.

On June 2, 2021, the Working Committee informed the community that Gujarat-cadre IAS officer Dr. Jayanti S. Ravi, who has been serving as Principal Secretary in the Gujarat Health and Family and Welfare Department, has been appointed as Secretary of the Auroville Foundation on deputation.

During the afternoon of May 17, long-term Dutch Aurovilian Nolly Senden passed away at the JIPMER hospital due to a stroke. She was 85. Nolly was temporarily residing at the Mahalakshmi Home to recover from a leg injury when she became unwell and started experiencing COVID symptoms.

Aurovilian A. Jothi passed away at JIPMER hospital on May 28th due to COVID. Jothi joined Auroville in 2005 after marrying Ganesh. A happy spirit, she worked at Farm Fresh for five years, then at PTDC for five years, where she was known as “one of the sweetest people we have ever met,” and for the past one and a half years at Sunship.

On Sunday May 16, Italian Aurovilian Renzo Pezzato left his body at the age of 67 at JIPMER hospital where he had been brought because of serious COVID symptoms.

A year ago, Auroville Today profiled the launch of the Aura network. Since then it has quickly grown, reflecting some of the core aspirations that drew many of us to Auroville.

How does Auroville deal with ageing? Are there community retirement plans? Are Auroville units planning for succession? Auroville Today talked to two unit executives – one who is (slightly) stepping back, the other who is stepping forward – and lifts the veil on a Silver Fund which is being planned for the older members of the community.

On November 23rd, the term of office of Dr Karan Singh and the other members of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation came to an end.

Findhorn is an eco-village, a spiritual New Age community, and a well known alternative education centre in Britain. Founded by Eileen and Peter Caddy and Dorothy Maclean (who only passed away this January aged 100), the community emerged through a mixture of the spiritual guidance received by Eileen, Dorothy’s connection with the nature spirits and Peter’s physical work in grounding the guidance.

A study made by Lyle on transfers made within the Financial Service between services/units and between services/units and individuals shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: there were 38% less transfers in the COVID-19 months in 2019-20 than in 2018-19.

In 2020, one subject attracted maybe as much attention as the pandemic itself: “masks”. This simple but nowadays also potent word is able to trigger emotions, opinions, reflection and action.

The steady increase in private car ownership in Auroville, as well as the hike in outside cars and autos circulating daily within the community, gives rise to the question: Is Auroville falling well behind ‘best practice’ examples of transport that are thriving in other parts of the world?

Auroville Today spoke with Aurelio, founder of Svaram, the unit that makes musical instruments and conducts research into acoustics and sound healing.

The Working Committee’s call for random COVID-19 testing to see if any “community transmission” is happening in Auroville has been answered by 66 residents, who were tested on August 18th at Santé by a team organised by the Block Medical Officer.

The Collector Villupuram District has granted special permission to use Sharanam guesthouse in the Bharat Nivas compound as a primary site, and the Tibetan Pavilion as a secondary site if needed, for quarantining residents of Auroville (including registered guests and volunteers) who have tested Covid-19 positive.

In Auroville, the prevalence and the meaning of face masks has shifted radically in recent months. From something that was previously worn to protect two-wheeler motorists from dust and pollution, the mask has now become ubiquitous as a signifier of a public health disaster.