Internationalism

For years, our annual population review was a prosaic, statistically-detailed piece, with musings on which nationals were moving to Auroville in increasing or decreasing numbers.

Auma is a second-generation Aurovilian, born to Indian and French pioneers, Marie Babu and André Tardeil. While she raises her third generation child, she shares insights with us about what makes Auroville unique to her.

Miko Sloper is a man of many talents, a philosophy graduate, mathematician, language teacher, musician. As I sit down to have a brief talk about his latest interests in Auroville, I notice his beard and hair, which were previously white, have turned green, so I start the interview  by asking…why green?

Everyone here knows the expression “Children of Auroville”, but they’ve grown up since, and some now have children themselves! As various waves of ‘children of Children of Auroville’ – i.e. youth that has grown up in Auroville to parents that have themselves grown up in Auroville (monikers: GenZ, iGen or even Zoomers) are born and grow up here, the older ones now represent a category that is starting to be more vocal in the community.

Many people come to Auroville as adults, but some of us were born here or came as kids. What is it like, being a child of Auroville? How is it different to grow up in an intentional community?

Auroville receives a minimum of 300 volunteers per year from more than 30 nationalities and this number is increasing every year. An official volunteer (registered with Savi) works at least 24 hours per week in one occupation from 120 work positions available in Auroville.

I wonder if this is a shared rationale, and whether being exposed from a young age to a dynamic and participatory learning environment is conducive to engaging in creating such opportunities.

Imagine being a young person, discovering, participating, and actively dedicated to the development of Auroville. Imagine living in a group of twelve, all volunteering in the community: people from different parts of the world, with different cultural backgrounds, but with a common intention to experience and contribute to Auroville.

“Nobody wants to talk to me”, said the journalist, annoyance clouding his voice. He had come to write an article about Auroville and had asked the staff of OutreachMedia to find people to whom he could talk.

The highlight of this year's 50th anniversary bonfire was undoubtedly the moving water ceremony. Srimoyi, a member of the Matrimandir Events Team, describes on behalf of the team how it came about.

The Meditation and Water Ceremony

Auroville Today reported on the social outreach work of Upasana in January 2009, eight years ago. Today Upasana is 20 years old. What direction is it taking now?

The population table published in the previous edition of Auroville Today contained a serious mistake. At the end of the population table on page 7, column 1 was mistakenly copied into column 3.

Pashi Kapur came to live in Auroville with his family in early 1974. Since then, he has contributed a great deal but his Auroville journey has not always been smooth.

Art Break Day is a community art event which occurs in locations around the world on the first Friday in September, including 29 sites this year in Mexico, the Netherlands and the US.

The Teamwork ’88 (or Peace Trees) programme of exchange between youth from Russia, America and India, which was announced in Auroville Today number two, has happened and was a success.

One name keeps coming back over the years, in connection with the Galaxy: Roger Anger, the well-known French architect. Soon after leaving the Beaux Arts, he constructed some buildings which were architecturally remarkable and which immediately associated him with the avant-garde.

After months of speculation and incertitude, the Auroville Foundation Bill was passed in both Houses of Parliament in early September. There is no doubt of the historic importance of this bill in terms of Auroville’s growth.