Creating the next stage superhumans via cellular evolution appear crackpot to me

05 February 2007 La vie Parisien en Indie: Pondicherry is about 100 miles south of Chennai (Madras) and is a remarkable town in many ways. The policemen wear those red kepis that General de Gaulle used to sport. There is a fine Hotel de Ville housing the administrative wallahs and there is a defined French Quarter with typical street name plates and the smell of good coffee.

My god! Coffee and croissants are here and proud. Our hotel is the former home of one of the French governors of the Union Territory and we are paying dearly for its heritage status but we thought for a while we'd be sleeping rough. The streets down this end of town are tree-shaded and amazingly clean compared to the typical Indian town.

Anyway, after a couple of days of Gallic lazing about, we have been thinking about our next move. The town of Pondicherry is dominated by the real estate holdings of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and a few miles North of here is the model town of Auroville. Founded in 1960 by Sri Aurobindo's successor, a French woman referred to everywhere as "The Mother", Auroville is envisaged as an international community ultimately covering maybe sixty square miles. At present it stretches over an area of ten square miles and is home to about 2200 Aurovilleans. There's a lot of creativity gone into engineering this community and its environment, including regenerating a barren plateau into a tropical hardwood forest. At the same time, some of its ambitions, like creating the next stage superhumans via cellular evolution appear crackpot to me.

We went for a visit today and in fact decided to stay in one of the guesthouses but our plans have currently fallen through so we shall have to see what tomorrow brings. It would be nice to converse with people who know more about the aims and methods of the society and just rest up in a rural setting rather than the enervating noise and bustle of the cities. More to follow. posted by John 19:02