Today I went to lunch in Auroville with Hélène and François, a lovely French couple who took pity on me the other night at a hotel restaurant in Pondicherry when they saw me eating alone and invited me to sit with them. I was delighted and we had a great chat. François is a retired businessman who fought in the Algerian War and Hélène is a retired journalist. François' son is an Aurovillian and the couple have been coming to visit him here for the past 14 years. Auroville is the "universal city in the making" about 20 minutes drive from Pondicherry. People from all over the world reside there. At Roma's, Heidi, an inhabitant of 35 years, told me that the population consists demographically of first Indians, then residents from France, then other Europeans, Americans, etc. The city was created in 1968 (with the support of the Government of India and UNESCO) by "the Mother," Mirra Alfassa, a French woman and collaborator of Sri Aurobindo. Aurobindo was a Bengali nationalist who fled British India for the French territories in 1910. He turned to yoga and spirituality, gradually developing a large following. "Mother" helped found the Sri Aurobindo Ashram located here in Pondicherry and, after Aurobindo's death in 1950, set up the Aurobindo International Centre of Education. One devotee I met the other day moved here last year from Bengal to enroll her daughter in the Ashram school and was, she reported sadly, unsuccessful in her application. She will have to try again next year.This place has such a complex history: Indian cultures and peoples, French influences and connections, the central place of the Ashram, the Aurovillian experimental offshoot with its unusual approach to community. It's difficult, for example, for me to show an image of a pleasant road without getting caught up in issues of politics, identity, transnational cultural exchange and spirituality... posted by gimmeanr Sunday, February 05, 2006 at 21:17
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