A Week in Auroville — Part 1
I came to Auroville for the first time in December 2010, as part of my journalism college group and stayed there for two days. The place, for its uniqueness, had left an indelible mark on me back then. It’s a living experiment of humanity — certainly not perfect but a very interesting one, filled with valuable insights for the world to learn from.
11 years later, I found myself back in Auroville in the September of 2021. It took a year of lockdown and a pandemic to get me here! I came here looking for answers, curious about alternative styles of living and to spark my imagination.
Food and farming
My week in Auroville (AV) began with a visit to the Solitude Farm and café for breakfast. The farm is a natural food forest created by a British man named Krishna Mckenzie and his local team, on the principles of permaculture inspired by the Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka. Simply put, permaculture or ‘permanent culture’ doesn’t just focus on the economic aspects of farming but encompasses its environmental, social and cultural aspects (similar to Rujuta Diwekar’s relationship with Indian local food) as well.
The food in the café is made with the rich variety of local farm produce and transformed with innovative recipes — mostly Tamilian with a few international experiments like mushroom papaya soup and leafy sushi. There were several tiny moments of bliss when some of the dishes on the breakfast and the lunch thali hit my tongue. I couldn’t help but close my eyes in gratitude in those moments. I found divinity in food. The cafe’s refreshing flower drinks — made from hibiscus and butterfly pea also deserve a special mention. The Solitude café thus became a regular joint to have lunch almost every day of my week in AV. Food always tastes better when you’re closer to where it’s grown, like the cauliflowers that once grew in our garden.
Walking barefoot, Krishna also took us on a small tour of the farm, and talked about four local plants— which he calls weeds as they tend to grow in abundance on their own and don’t have much economic value though they do have immense nutritional, environmental and cultural value. Since the farm follows the let nature take its own course philosophy, it does not look very structured but has a complex ecosystem with more than 200 species growing together. Krishna knows exactly where to find each flower, leaf, weed or fruit in this beautiful disorder.
Krishna once also quipped that Britain does not have any culture while India still retains it in some parts. He said, a nation that does not know where its food comes from is distant from its roots, its culture. His words reminded me of the time when my journalism professor’s father, a 70-year-old retired army officer, built an organic farm in the foothills of the Himalayas when he realized his grand daughter did not know where the food on her plate came from.
Literature, media and study circles
My curiosity about this experimental town took me to the Auroville library next. I wanted to know what the residents of AV read. Was it primarily books on spirituality? Well no, I found columns of books on design, art, architecture, history, psychology, philosophy, you name it, as well as classic and popular fiction — all in several languages.
I also found a copy of the AV weekly newsletter and a monthly magazine. These two were treasure troves of information on what life as an Aurovillian is. For instance, I learnt that the youth of AV are not very content with their lives, face mental health issues and are uncertain about their future, quite like the youth of the rest of the country.
I also learnt that decision making in this town tries to be inclusive of everyone — and not just cater to the needs of the majority. Whether they are actually able to meet everyone’s wishes needs more research to be answered but the intention of making everyone feel heard seemed to be present.
This approach to decision making is also much more time consuming and meant for patient minds — something I experienced first hand at a study circle I went to. The organizers of this study circle were very slow and deliberate in their approach to come to a consensus about their next meeting time. As I observed everyone in the room, I got a bit restless, but then took a moment to pause and ponder, what was more important for them? Reaching a decision fast so we could move on with our day or helping more and more seekers of knowledge make the study circle a part of their lives?
This study circle was on the Bhagavad Gita, specifically on the book, Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo. There were 15 odd people in the room and the first meeting was focused on introductions and understanding what brought these individuals to the Gita. From the next meeting onwards, it was decided that everyone would read a chapter from the book and during the study circle, share lines or passages that resonated with them through their own personal experiences. If time permits, they would also read some parts of the chapter together in the meeting. This would make for an interesting study group as I saw people from different age groups, nationalities and gender, not to mention, life experiences, educational backgrounds, occupations, emotional mixes, communication styles and personality types, trying to collectively expand their own and others’ knowledge of life.
The hungry learner that I am, I had also attended another study circle earlier in the week, where people had come together to study the Natyashastra. Also known as the fifth Veda sometimes, Natyashastra is an ancient Sanskrit text on the performing arts, compiled by sage Bharat Muni and said to be created by Brahma, taking elements from each of the four vedas.
It began with an 11-minute video lecture on the Natyashatra (available online and created by Indus University), after which the floor was opened for reflections and questions by the group. Then one person read out the English translations of the shlokas from the chapter of the week. The session ended with another person chanting their Sanskrit version in a particular tone with specific highs and lows, and the rest of the group joined in chorus. The power of the chorus in sync was immense and created an aura of strong vibrations in the room.
This circle took place in the Bhumika Hall, which like a lot of places in AV, has beautiful architecture. Large doors and windows on three sides of the room, to look through and see the forest beyond, a huge projector, a low-level wooden stage which had the statue of Nataraja on one corner and a brass matka on another. And in the background was playing the drone of the tanpura on a speaker. Having discovered it in AV, I still use that music when I want to concentrate in the city.
Dance
Being a student of dance, I was always on the quest to find dance experiences in AV. Luckily for me, AV is a place with a variety of dance forms being taught and practiced — from kathak, odissi and bharatnatyam to tango, salsa, hip hop and contemporary. A lot of these regular classes take place at the Bharat Nivas, or the Indian pavilion (each country in AV is envisioned to have a pavilion of its own but the Indian one is in the most advanced stage as of 2021).
I went to AV’s weekly tango class at CRIPA (AV’s Centre for Research in Performing Arts) because I love that dance form though I am still a beginner. I also went to the tango practica afterwards which was a bit disappointing because the advanced dancers wouldn’t dance with beginners. However, it was nice to see these pros move like fluid on the floor and I did get to dance with other beginners :)
I am also a big fan of kathak and recently started taking kathak classes. The kathak danseuse in AV, graciously agreed to let me watch her 2 hour class one Saturday. She had decades of experience behind her and had become a professional dancer at 19. I was honored to observe the class of a practitioner who’d dedicated her life to this art form. The atmosphere she’d created in the dance studio — with the faint smell of agarbatti, the five pairs of ghungroos making beautiful sound patterns to the tabla taal, five women in sync (mostly), and the morning light pouring in on the wooden floor — was nothing short of mesmerizing. She had created an experience, not just a dance class.
There was another dance session I had come across on the AV activity calendar this week that had piqued my interest because it was called ‘Ecstatic Dance’. It was very similar to how improv classes in contemporary dance are structured or not structured. It happens every Saturday at CRIPA for two hours and I went for two of these sessions and enjoyed the free flow of movement as the music flowed from soft instrumental to African beats to club music. At one point, they also played chhaiyaa chhaiyaa. Rahman, you genius! The only instruction we were given was — let the music guide you.
It seems like dance followed me everywhere in Auroville. One night after dinner, I heard the sound of a flute being played so melodiously that I just followed it and found myself at a mini concert with a tabla, sitar and flute being played in the Unity Pavilion, which was right next door to my guest house.
The trio was playing tansen’s ragas among others and had the audience charmed. Hearing the live tabla being played, I was tempted to get up and practice my kathak moves and I did just that! It was so fulfilling to practice my footwork with the live tabla. As my gaze went outside the glass doors of the hall while dancing, I saw another woman dance to the music, hypnotized, and I felt good about myself and the world :)
