Edayanachavadi

According to a report in the Times of India, on 22 October residents of Kuilapalayam and Edayanchavadi villages objected to the Foundation’s decision to cut large trees along the highway connecting the two villages.

Prashant Hedao was the Regional Planning Coordinator of L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Department, from 2007-2010. In those years he worked closely together with then Governing Board member Dr BV Doshi on the Auroville Master Plan.

Sathiya, a second-generation Aurovilian, speaks about her upbringing and her unwavering commitment to Auroville's ethos despite external pressures.

In February, the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture hosted a double exhibition: Bhavyo’s paintings of the icy peaks of the Himalayan Tosh valley were displayed in its main room, while a number of urban design studies of his twin sister Bhavya were hung around the courtyard.

Serena Aurora is an independent filmmaker based in Auroville and the creator of Aurora’s Eye Films. She has produced many community, spiritual and environmental documentaries conveying some of the explorations in Auroville and elsewhere to a wider audience.

Sixteen years have gone by since two young women, Bridget Horkan and Kathy Walkling, took a big step to bridge the gap between Auroville  and the neighbouring village of Edayanchavadi.

On June 26th, 26 June, Durai Munusamy passed away at the age of 55 due to suicide near his house in Agni. Hailing from Edaiyanchavadi village, Durai had been living in Auroville since 1992 and worked at Savitri Bhavan as a garden supervisor.

Integrated Animal Care Centre (IACC) was started in 2005. It is a legacy of Ann Plummer. She was known as “Animal Care Ann” as she used to give food and look after stray dogs and cats.

Savithiri was born and raised in the neighbouring village of Edaiyanchavadi. Growing up, her life entwined her two passions: the Indian classical dance form Bharat Natyam; and the Auroville village outreach project Thamarai.

The International Zone Coordination Team shared the International Zone’s latest developments and future plans in an open community meeting in January.

For six days in early January there was a collaborative planning workshop or charrette involving over 60 Aurovilians and visiting experts. The stated aim of Auroville - A Way Forward was to “bring the purpose of Auroville into our life, built environment and organization’.

The community has no policy regarding how to handle tourism. Recently, visiting students studied the situation and made some recommendations.

Thamarai, which means 'lotus' in Tamil, is an Auroville educational and health project in the bioregion. There were challenges in 2016 when the Thamarai centre had to shut down in Edayanchavady.

Andhayee ‘Ammal’ was born in Edayanchavady. In a love marriage, she married a man from a higher caste, a temple builder from Naidu caste, but this was not acceptable to either family and they were sent out of the village.

In a quiet back street of Edayanchavadi village there is a neat house. Beside it is a beautiful garden of plants and creepers with a magnificent statue of Ganesh.

The garbage heaps on the fields and along the roads leading into Auroville are increasing. What’s being done about it?

The ownership of a recently bought eight-acre plot of land on the tar road between Certitude and Edayanachavady, for which negotiations have been going on for almost three years, is in dispute and Auroville has been denied possession of the land.

V. Devaraj, husband of D. Davamani and father of Ranjani, Nathiya and Sathiya passed away on May 26th in his house in Aspiration after a long extended illness.

Cristo has worked for many years on developing collaborations with the local villages. Why does he do it? What are the challenges and the satisfactions?

An Auroville school uses various educational methods to engage children from the local area.

YouthLink celebrated Auroville’s 50th Anniversary by launching two of its projects, the Hive and the Joy of Impermanence.

In the early evening of Sunday 10 September, Aurovilian Kanniappan suffered a road accident between Kottakarai village and the Visitors Centre, resulting in a severe head injury that left him unconscious.

The Thamarai learning and community centre celebrated 10 years of working towards impacting better health, education and leadership in Edayanachavady village and other villages around Auroville.

Nammal mudiyam - the “we can” project - is a project of the youth of Edayanchavady. As a step in transforming their village, they organized an alcohol-awareness programme on 28th February in the temple square.

For many years, Shankar has been active in combating alcoholism in the area through his work with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) [see Auroville Today, # 306].

Auroville, a melting pot of arts, culture, science and society, has been involved in many educational outreach initiatives since the 1980’s.

Bridget, currently the only Irish Aurovilian, has been involved in many activities. These range from town planning to village work to helping to take care of Pitanga Cultural Centre.

Auroville’s college scholarship initiative for village students, Reach for the Stars, is now in its fifth year and has supported 56 students to date.

Kuilapalayam and Edayanachavady, two of Auroville’s neighbouring villages, are in the process of being cleaned up. Over the years, many local schools have created strong eco-clubs which are building environmental awareness by doing environmental programs.

Records of Auroville’s history during Mother’s lifetime are found in periodicals (Mother India, the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, the Information Letter of the Sri Aurobindo Society and the Gazette Aurovilienne), in books published by disciples (Satprem, Shyam Sunder, Huta, Savitra), in archives (Sri Aurobindo Society, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville), in personal archives as well as in published and unpublished interviews of disciples (Roger Anger and others).