Solar Kitchen

The Auroville Visitors Centre is Auroville’s reception and information disseminating centre for the often thousands of tourists and visitors coming to Auroville daily.

Serena, an Aurovilian and filmmaker, recounts her journey with the nuns of the Buddhist Karsha Monastery in Ladakh, documenting their inspiring story and the powerful exchange that unfolded.

Anshul joined Auroville in 2019 and works at AuroOrchard. His journey with farming started in Auroville ten years ago with his intention to grow his own food.

“Enhance Auroville food production to meet the needs of Auroville...” – View point of the Governing Board as recorded in the minutes of the 57th meeting.

On the 4th January, many people were shocked to see many Service trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum/ Copper Pod tree) being felled on the Crown between the Solar Kitchen and Mahalakshmi Home.

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.

On August 15th, the new Solar Kitchen management team celebrated one year in office. Auroville Today asked executives Harishini, Vanitha, Shakthi and Manimaran about their experience.

It’s deceptive… It looks like it could only have been constructed using a JCB or other heavyweight lifting mechanism. But I had a big surprise when Supriya Pava explained to me that her latest sculpture is as light as a feather.

Many view the disruption caused by the lockdown in Auroville as an opportunity to radically transform our economy, governance, food provision systems etc. and a number of proposals to achieve this have already been made.

Zero waste is the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of all products, packaging, and materials, without burning them, and without discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.

In ‘normal’ times, Aurovilians have a great deal of choice when it comes to dining in cafes and restaurants, or buying groceries to cook at home.

Saturdays are usually busy days around Solar Kitchen. People are rushing to get their weekend shopping at PTDC, or a quick coffee at La Terrace, or finding a new item at Freestore.

The City Services Lunch Scheme began more than 10 years ago as a way of enlarging the in-kind maintenance system. It was developed to help those working in the services to supplement the monthly maintenance which was not enough to cover the basic needs of living and working here.

The Solar Kitchen opened in December 1997 and since then has been operating uninterruptedly under different managers. The first were Jaya and Shyama, who were joined shortly after by Andrea.

On June 14 Sakthivel passed away at AUM Hospital. He was just 41 years old. Hailing from Kottakarai, Sakthivel came to work in Auroville in 1996 and officially joined in 2003.

Kailash, a youth community in the centre of Auroville which houses 14 teenagers between 16 and 21, celebrated 15 years of existence in September last year.

I’ve been in Auroville since my marriage 26 years ago. I grew up in Chinnakottakuppam village on the backside of Forecomers, towards Pondicherry.

In Transition School, one class of 8–9 year olds have been taking part in a wellness programme. Paula, their teacher, explains that it begins with a brainstorming during which the kids are asked to come up with ideas about how they can stay well.

Murthy has been running Ayarpadi Farm in Auroville for the last 15 years. He talks to Auroville Today about the challenges and rewards.

Over the past two months, Aurovilians have been invited to participate in a new experiment called The Joy of Learning. What is the idea behind it?

Tomas and Krishna farm on different scales and in different ways. Tomas manages the 134 acres of Annapurna Farm; Krishna farms six acres of Solitude in the ‘non-till’ Fukuoka style.