“Auroville is the brainchild of the mother, an experiment in international living where people can live in peace and progressive harmony. A place where all human beings of goodwill. sincere in their aspiration, can live freely as citizens of the world.”
The French Mother was instrumental in the setting up of Auroville, an international community to explore new ways of living (a hippie commune….). Auroville lies just north of Pondy, so we took a tuktuk to take a look. At its heart is a giant golden golf ball that encloses an enormous quartz crystal which as non residents we were not allowed to see. 1900 people live here in small like-minded communities – pottery, art, recycling, women’s groups, solar farming – you get the gist and now know exactly what we are talking about. Dirty clothes, Rasta extensions, feral kids, motorbikes, no deodorant etc. About 90% of the inhabitants are Westerners who will no doubt run home for medical treatment and state pensions when the time is right! The only Indian community we drove through was a slum and a disgrace. The community has been here for over 40 years – if this is the new way of community living then god help us.
We took some none too serious photos of us holding said golden ball – see photo.
In complete contrast and much more fun, on our way back we ran into a village Pongal festival – cows painted and decorated and being chased through the town – at one point we had to dive out of the way of a charging bullock cart, bedecked with flowers and driven by youths splashing the crowd with pongal water. There was a real feeling of joy and fun, in which we were happy to partake.
We will not be becoming residents of Auroville and so to make sure that we hadn’t been tempted we had a great meal at the hippest place in Pondy on the roof top of a gorgeous minimalist hotel overlooking the prom. Gill ate salad!!! It must be clean…..
The French Mother was instrumental in the setting up of Auroville, an international community to explore new ways of living (a hippie commune….). Auroville lies just north of Pondy, so we took a tuktuk to take a look. At its heart is a giant golden golf ball that encloses an enormous quartz crystal which as non residents we were not allowed to see. 1900 people live here in small like-minded communities – pottery, art, recycling, women’s groups, solar farming – you get the gist and now know exactly what we are talking about. Dirty clothes, Rasta extensions, feral kids, motorbikes, no deodorant etc. About 90% of the inhabitants are Westerners who will no doubt run home for medical treatment and state pensions when the time is right! The only Indian community we drove through was a slum and a disgrace. The community has been here for over 40 years – if this is the new way of community living then god help us.
We took some none too serious photos of us holding said golden ball – see photo.
In complete contrast and much more fun, on our way back we ran into a village Pongal festival – cows painted and decorated and being chased through the town – at one point we had to dive out of the way of a charging bullock cart, bedecked with flowers and driven by youths splashing the crowd with pongal water. There was a real feeling of joy and fun, in which we were happy to partake.
We will not be becoming residents of Auroville and so to make sure that we hadn’t been tempted we had a great meal at the hippest place in Pondy on the roof top of a gorgeous minimalist hotel overlooking the prom. Gill ate salad!!! It must be clean…..
