Youth

Daniel Helman Lee grew up in Auroville, graduated from Future School in 2019 and studied in Maastricht, The Netherlands, before moving to Israel, where she is now enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts creative writing programme in Tel Aviv.

The Dominique Darr Grant was launched this year to enable young photographers to exhib at Centre d’Art. The first such exhibition, with the theme “The Sun, the Moon and the Truth, three things cannot be long hidden”, opened on 15 August and featured the work of five young Aurovilians—Anantini, Simran, Aadi, Balaji, Arati and Bhavyo.

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.

Sagarika was born and raised in Auroville. In 2019 she went abroad to continue her education and broaden her experience. Recently she returned to Auroville.

In early 2023, YouthLink conducted an initial survey on the working situation of Aurovilian youth aged 18-30. 116 youth (24% of the total 492 Aurovilians in this age bracket) chose to participate.

Dr. Sanjeev Ranganathan has been an executive of the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER) since August 2021 and was a SAIIER board member from 2016 to 2020.

“We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future.” At 09.30 am on Sri Aurobindo’s 151st birthday, Manoj Pavithran premiered ‘Sri Aurobindo: A new Dawn’ in Bharat Nivas.

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’.

AVYI was an amazing experience. I learnt so much more than I expected. All the organisers and participants were amazing, and I had so much fun.

Recently, Jay Naidoo, an ex-freedom fighter from South Africa, visited Auroville and addressed an important question to the youth: “You say you are open to everyone and invite people from all over the world, but have you actually created an environment where African people can integrate into the community?”

Gwjwn Daimari first heard about Auroville while he was working on his B.Sc. in Physics at Pondicherry University. He returned to his native Assam after completing his degree but came back in 2022 to explore Auroville.

Over the past seven years, Lucrezia Fassi has been involved in various youth initiatives and projects including the Youth Center, Aura App, and Disha.

I came to Auroville as an angry, friendless twelve year old who refused to go barefoot and hated the red soil, the stains it left on my clothes.

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?

Thanks to the Internet culture, Aurovilian teenagers are very connected to the world: they knew about the coronavirus when it had just started, long before it hit India.

I was born in Auroville in 1994, where I grew up as a child. I left for France when I was nine years old, came back for one year in 2009, and returned to France to finish my studies.

We are Julian, Jonas and Anadi, three Auroville youths that run Tree Care, an arboriculture business. In case you are wondering what arboriculture is, let us tell you: arboriculture is the synthesis of tree science (biology), physics, chemistry, physical coordination, strength, heavy machinery, and of course some yoga to stay calm and focused throughout technical and dangerous procedures, or as Google would define it: the cultivation of trees and shrubs.

20 years old, I was born and raised in Auroville. I studied in Last School and I am currently living in Muyarchi. My passion/interest lies in several activities like art, fire dance, horsemanship, writing/languages.

I am 24 years old and i am from Tamil Nadu. I came to Auroville 2.5 years ago, I consider myself a barefoot architect working on integral rural development through community empowerment and participatory leadership.

My name is Marie, I come from France where I studied art and graphic design, in Paris and in Le Havre. I came to Auroville in October 2018 through Service Civique.

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.

The post hails from the cozy north-eastern town of Shillong in the state of Meghakaya. The inspiration for the writings comes from my personal journey through this labyrinth that we call life.

I finished my undergrad studies in architecture in 2017 from Bangalore. I come from Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. During my stay in Auroville, I lived in several places including ‘La Maison des Jeunes’ which influenced me to make 0 comic strip relating to the community.

I was brought up in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram School and I am currently working for YouthLink and living in Maison des Jeunes. In my quest for meaning, I have found my place in Auroville.

The WasteLess team’s efforts to bring the issue of waste into our consciousness and inspire change in social behaviour through education have recently been taken up by the Tamil Nadu government.

On 23rd February, a one day event, The New Creation Emerges, was held in Bhumika Hall. The morning was a very special one as ten young Aurovilians shared about their lives and aspirations.

Sangamam in Tamil means ‘confluence’ or ‘a group of people coming together’ and this was very much the spirit of this year’s gathering on the 4th of March that brought together around 8000 people from Auroville, its beautiful bioregion, and many friends and guests from around the world.

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.

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.

Higher education and learning opportunities have been on the minds of many groups such as the Centre for International Research on Human Unity (CIRHU), Auroville Campus Initiative (ACI), Auroville Consulting, and Youth Link, all of which have focused on linking learners with a myriad of existing resources within the community.

Hemant Lamba, a member of the Working Committee, has for many years been concerned about transforming our housing situation, particularly to meet the needs of youth.

Dasha came to Auroville when she was just one year old, and has been living here ever since. She is a self-taught artist who paints as a hobby and because she loves it.

On December 12th 2015, about 20 youth gathered in the Town Hall in answer to an invitation that said, “Ever wondered what’s happening in the Town Hall?

All you need to be a poet in Sanjeev’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Land is a love of solving problems and abstractions.

The article “Auroville’s spirituality” in the August-September 2015 issue of Auroville Today contains a section on the Auroville schools. Concern is expressed that many of Auroville’s youngsters hardly know of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and that most of the Auroville schools do not communicate anything of their vision.

In October, the fourth Auroville Film festival took place. “The aim of the Auroville Film Festival,” says the Festival brochure, “is to connect with people and cultures within and beyond Auroville and to further the aspiration of human unity by showcasing films that develop the theme of human unity.”

The Auroville Retreat, which took place on 12th and 13th March, brought together members of the International Advisory Council (IAC), the Governing Board (GB) and around 160 Aurovilians to examine the present state of Auroville and to draft an action plan for the near future.

While we project Auroville as an international township dedicated to human unity, in fact we do not know much about each other’s lives and aspirations.

“I love Auroville because it’s my home. I love Auroville because of the freedom I have, because of the beautiful nature I am surrounded with every day, because of all the cultures and variety of people I am constantly exposed to, because of the wonderful school I go to, and all my amazing friends I have met here.

Last School, that hotbed of a bright new wave of young Aurovilians destined, come the year 2001, to take our citadel by storm, was the site, in this pleasant month of December, of two events worth noting: India Week, and the third annual Last School Fair.