Tsunami of 2004

On September 11th Doris van Kalker (born Griethe) left her body at the age of 76 in Mahalakshmi Home. She had been taken there on August 9th to recover from a fall, then went to PIMS for a few days to find the cause of her unbalance and difficulty with walking, where she was diagnosed with Myeloma.

On April 14, Tamil New Year, a frantic voice message for help was heard by many in Auroville. A bulldozer was uprooting the living fence bordering Eternity, a densely forested Auroville community located between the beach and the East Coast Road near Kalapet.

It’s generally Auroville’s attractive products or tangible outputs that have gained the most attention for the community’s units and services over the years.

Tsunamika, the colourful cloth doll representing post-tsunami renewal, returns in a new avatar. She has now grown into the voice of the oceans, urging us to protect our seas and, ultimately, ourselves.

When my family and I moved to Auroville in 1999, we stayed in various places before settling down in Surrender. After having gone out for a few years, I returned to Auroville in 2013.

On April 1, Rauf Ali passed away in his house at Aurodam, at the age of 62 due to leukemia. He was lovingly surrounded by close friends and his sister-in-law.

Francis and Doris are the Auroville Video Productions team which, for the past ten years, has been documenting the history and unfolding of Auroville.