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General Letter #1 from Basil March 2005
It is now a month since I left Denmark, and most
of that time I have
spent here at Auroville, a fascinating international township in
Tamil Nadu, South India. I thought
I would describe a typical day,
corresponding to the middle of March, to illustrate how varied and
stimulating are the
experiences of my journey.
I awake to the sounds of farmyard roosters and Indian birdsong. I am
staying on Buddha
gardens, an organic wwoofing farm here at Auroville
(www.auroville.org).
It is still dark outside with the first
light of dawn awakening the
tropical
sky. I walk in the darkness with my solar rechargable lamp to the
nearby basic
washroom, taking care to look for snakes on the path.
Last week a cobra was caught in the compost heap, and two of its
babies
got away.
At 6.15am a group of 14 of us gather - Priya the English woman who set
up and runs Buddha Gardens, 8 Tamil
horticulture apprentices, and
five international visitors, to discuss the mornings work. Today I
work with Priya, Alison
(a US student about to start university back
in Seatle), Moorti and Salem, two of the Tamil young men (both of who
speak
quite good English and one of whom is very keen on cricket).
We work preparing and planting beds of maize, weeding,
composting,
planting and mulching, as well as prepare some seedlings in the farm
nursery. By
9am, the sun is already
dripping hot, and eagerly await a cup of
sweet tea and simple
rice breakfast that has been prepared for everyone by
Mala, a local
Tamil
village woman, who works part time at Buddha Gardens. At breakfast
Priya describes what it was
like to have been part of the break up of
Baghwan's Rajneeshpuram, in Oregon, over 20 years before.
After another
hand wash, I rev up my moped, and head into 'town';
'Town' comprises scattered buildings and mini- communities surrounded
by
extensive areas of mature reafforestation and cashew tree
orchards. I stop off at the Auroville visitor centre to watch
a
video about the building of the matra mandir,the enignmatic large
spherical dome being completed at the heart of Auroville.
This
building reflects the philosophy of a French woman and Sri
Auribindo,anIndian seer,who lived in nearly Pondicherry
in the
earlier part of the 20th Centuryand whose writings and teachings
underpin a lot of what happens in Auroville.
I have visited the
matra mandir a number of times, and meditated in the remarkable
inner chamber,with its austere space
and central crystal ball.
I then visit an Aurovillian internet cafe,and check my email. Things
are coming together
for my forthcoming visits to Germany,Lithuania
and Ireland,but it does take some preparation,contacting Servas
hosts,
friends and contacts provided. I am especially excited about
visiting Lithuania where I now have been in touch with 8 or
so
Lithuanian families,including contacts in the Jewish community there.
I have done quite a lot of preparatory reading
for Lithuania,and am
aware that while considerable anti semitism exists in that
country,there are welcome moves on the
part of the Governmment and
broader society to address this. My aim in visiting Lithuania,is to
reclaim a sense of connection
to Lithuanian people, as well as the
place of my forebears.
I have lunch at one of several Aurovillian dining rooms
- Aurolec-
that cater for people here.It is a delicious buffet lunch, cositng
only 55 rupees (less than A$2).I have
arranged to meet at Aurolec
with three
of my co volunteers from Buddha Gardens. One of the is Dennis, a 23
year
old German man, recently completed university. In common with
other young European people I have met,I am amazed at how
well
informed, progressive and enthusiastic he is.
We are also joined by Jacque,a 51 year old French Canadian, who
has
been staying the past 10 so months at the Sri Auribindo ashram in
Pondicherry. ( We have had long discussions on
spiritual matters,and
he has a deep, well grounded sense of wisdom). We sit outside
Aurolec cafe, in the shade of a
large well endowed jack fruit tree,
one of the many fabulous varieties of tropical trees planted in
Auroville. Denis
quotes statistics that people are much
more likely to killed by falling coconuts than being eaten by
sharks. I quote
equally reliable statistics that falling jack
fruits (which are weird) have claimed even more lives than coconut
palms,which
liberally dot the coastal landscape adjacent to
Auroville....
It is still the hot time of the day, and any thought
of activity
seems pointless. I idle away the siesta hours in another cafe in
Auroville,called New Creation. I speak
to a German woman,currently
living in France,where she has run a dance studio. Her interests are
in dance as therapy
and she has been drawn to Auroville because of
its reputation for the arts. Our conversation ranges over our
respective
vocations,and what we think of Auroville. At one point I
accidently knock over a glass of lemon juice,which narrowly misses
drenching
her.
I then proceed to one of the nearby Tamil villages, where I can buy
illegally available petrol. I say illegally,
but apparently 80 % of
the Indian economy is in the informal sector and outside of
Government influence.
I am
interested in understanding how Auroville (population about
1800) interacts with the adjacent Tamil villages (Population
>6000).
I attend a weekly discussion group which aims to engage Aurovillians
and visitors in projects of Village
action which link the two worlds.
Auroville helps to run about 6 schools in the villages, and has
helped to set up and
resource over 100 woman groups and 30 young mens
groups in the villages, who over the past decade have done lots of
self-help
projects in their villages. In addition Auroville provides
employment for many hundreds of villagers, or though this has
been a
source of tension in the past. Currently relations are good, in part
because of the big Tsunami relief effort
put in by Auroville since
December.
At 6pm I attend the Visitor Centre to watch a film made last year by
Sasha,a
Columbian born biologist,who spent a year at Schumaker's
College
in Devon. The tranquil film is about an hour and half
long and
follows the
River Dart in south east England from source to confluence with the
ocean. Sasha is one of my
co-volunteers at Buddha Gardens, currently
travelling around India looking at community development projects,
with particular
focus on water.The film showing is well attended by
about 40 other people,as it was previously advertised in the weekly
Auroville
newsletter.
After the movie, Priya has arranged for us to all eat at the Visitor
Centre cafe where I get to chat
with both the Tamil apprentices as
well as some other visitors to Auroville. After dinner I engage in
free ranging discussion
with six or so others. Around the table are
two Australians, a USer, a Columbian, a Spaniard,German and a French
person.
At one point we have a great discussion about cultural
identity. Some one makes the claim that Aurovillians think that
they
are more advanced than others, in part because they are involved in
an experiment in human unity ie a utopian community.
We discuss the relative merits of creating stronger communities where
we find ourselves in our lives,or the alternative
of building
intentional communities, such as Auroville, a project clearly fraught
with enormous challenges.
As
part of the discussion, I share my thinking about questions of
Jewish identity - what makes sense in reclaiming what is
good and
valuable from onces cultural heritage,and what makes sense to
discard. The self designated role as 'the chosen
people' has
certainly been misunderstood and used as one basis for a great deal
of hostility.
However Jewish people
and communities do carry a lot of unhealed
baggage which can and does get in the way of building
trusting,cooperative
relations
with others...... and so the conversation flows.
As I drop into bed that night - I fall asleep to the distant
howling
of dogs in the closest Tamil village. I form a provisional
hypothesis that perhaps Australian dingos originate from India
and
DNA studies may have provided some light on this....
Outside the star constellations of the Northen Hemisphere
sky shine
bright. Most of the constellations are unfamiliar to me,but to the
south I see the magnificent constellation
of Scorpio... I am happy to
be experiencing a world very different from home, yet with a few
familiar connections..
warm
wishes from
Basil
basils@wn.com.au
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