Auroville under the veil

The first time I heard about Auroville I was so fascinated by the idea of the universal town that I promised myself once in India to visit the place that in my head resembled "Utopia".

Imagine a place where human beings live above politics and nationalities, trying to achieve peace and harmony with the nature that surrounds them.
Auroville is divided in communities where "foreigners"  can volunteer in different projects like planting trees, gardening, working in a bamboo centre, in a bakery etc.
Alcohol and smoking are strongly forbidden to preserve spirituality.
In the communities people live in houses made of woods and straws, and eat all together.

The dorms

The dorms

Meditation area

Library

When the common works are finished there are all sort of activities that can be chosen.
I thought that it could have been the place I have always been looking for...however the reality check lower sadly my expectations.
In my short visit in Auroville I was more a spectator, or better a watcher of how life flows in this place.
I had the luck to be hosted by Gaurav,an Indian film maker who lives in Auroville...or better said he is embracing the Auroville status.
 Gaurav was a great host, I had such an amazing time also because he has huge culture that makes him even more interesting
Thanks to him I was able to meet Aurovillians and volunteers.
I had few dinners with his neighbours,the German corner. Pretty much they are middle (old) age Germans... I was not very comfortable around them because they did not reflect at all the Aurovillian idea, actually to me it was more a place for retired Western people , where they can live above average with little money...simply ugly!

My host house

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The garden

Xmas Eve at my host neighbour

Gaurav is also a great cook and once per week he volunteers at Sadhana Forest Community as a chef, cooking for around 70 people. I went with him, helping the volunteers in peeling off the vegetables for our lunch.

The cooker at Sadhana Forest

A part from peeling off vegetables for more than 70 people, I was glad to be with volunteers cause I had the chance to ask questions about their experience. We were around 8 people and almost all of them were there from 10 days.These guys told me that they expected something different...
They complained about the lack of interaction, I saw it later during lunch that people formed small groups and it is a little bit  hard to bond with others if you are a shy person.
Also they were not happy about the community work and the after work activities were not that enjoyable.
I think I was lucky because that day there was a seminar on non violent communication, so inspiring and open mind, I simply loved it.
At that seminar I met an Italian guy who was hosted by another small community. He told me about the problems within the community they were facing at that time. There was an inside war that divided the community in two sides and no more volunteers were accepted.
Another negative point, stressed by volunteer at Sadhana Forest, was that there is no cooperation or communication between the communities.
 It resembles an archipelago where communities are islands with few or not interactions among them...from my understanding there is a kind of competition that chokes the initial spirit of the project.
Moreover ,around Auroville there is a small village and even though locals are pretty used to Western people, they look at you as you were...different, there is no integration at all!
Also if you want to visit the Matrimandir, the big metallic sphere you have to go through a boring iter: watch a documentary on Auroville and its fundamentals and then register for the visit. During the visit you are forced to watch another documentary for being allowed to visit the centre for 15 minutes.
I booked my visit but I didn't go cause I was too lazy to get up early and the way it was organized sounded to me like a secta...

Event though some controversial points, I would love to be back in Auro and spend at least couple of weeks there to experience the common life with other volunteers from everywhere around the world, because at the end this is the best you can get from the universal town.

A pond

My bike

Pondy time

I spent my last days in India between Pondicherry and Auroville.

Pondy, as it called familiarly, is a former Dutch, Portuguese, English and last French colony! The French influence is palpable and a small French community lives overthere mixed with few other Western minorities.
I found a couchsurfer host before arriving in town but I spent the first day in a hotel, cause my host had his 24 hours turn in the hospital that day.

Promenade in Pondy

It was funny that while I was going back to my hotel, I bumped into  2 friends of my host ( whom I didnt even met at that time). The story in short is that I finished my dinner and I decided to get something sweet, but then I changed my mind and turned over to my way back to the hotel.
 I was lost in my thought when suddenly I heard my name, and there I met Jana and Pressly! They were in the area for some commissions and we casually came across into each other.
The mystery was solved easily,after my host told Jana (who is also a couch surfer) about me, he checked my cs profile, so he knew how I looked like.
As usual, call it destiny,fate or whatever, I had the luck to meet these two nice Indians!
Jana has an house at the back of Auroville, close by Sadhana forest, while my host lived in the center of Pondy.
I spent couple of days in Pondy with my host, partying at night with two other travelers,a French guy, that has been travelling around the globe for three years and a Spanish dude. We all spoke Spanish, and this made my host a little bit jealous, but he was going  around among his friends so we didnt care that much.
Last night I spent in Pondy with my host, he brought us ( me, the French and Spanish friend) to a cool hidden place when every bar closed up.
It was a hidden club on the roof of a building. Me and the guys thought it was a kind of rave, we had to climb stairs with no light and the walls with some graffiti reminded me of some social centre in Italy.
 But after going through the gate we were amazed! It was a posh club with a hot tub on a roof with plenty of fashion Indians.
After the initial stupor, we, the Spanish speaker gang, located a great spot, a small terrace up on a turret. People were too posh and music was not our cup of tea so we left my host with his friends and settled our own bar on the turret.

When you travel, you find all the tricks to save money and have good time anyway. The guys had rum and a bottle of coke: the perfect night!

The day after I decided to move to Auroville. I wanted to check this town that is supposed to resemble a hippie town.
I booked a nice room in a community and in the evening I had dinner with  Gaurav, another Indian Cs, who lives in Auroville. We got on very well and Gaurav offered me to stay at his place for the remaining days.
As usual I dont have half measures: I was still recovering from the previous night hungover but  I accepted to go partying at Jana place.
I was too curious to check a real Indian party and also because I knew Auroville is a alcohol free zone...so that was my last day with drinks!
The party was simply great! The tiredness disappeared after the first drink...there were Indians but also Europeans and we all start dancing Indian music, so funny!

In Auro

In Auro with Jana

The golden ball in my hand

View in Pondy from my host house

Beach in Pondy with Dani, a Spanish friend

The sky from Jana house

Jana's Terrace

Partying at Jana's

Indian dances

Yeahhhhh

Go Pressly!

Jana crazy dancing

Chennai

Chennai is a nice town, with a lot of things to see, however I spent there only one day cause I didnt have too much time left in India

I visited few of the nicest places. You can take the bus, it is far cheaper than the threewheelers and not that difficult.

My first destination was Valluvar Kottam, a famous monument erected in memory of  Thiruvalluvar, a Tamil poet who lived about 2000 years ago.

Marine beach is a famous area in town, it is not possible to bath and the beach is quite on average but in the surroundings there are few attractions as the Dutch Fort or MGR Samadhi. There is also the university with lovely buildings.

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University Building

University Building

Chennai is also very famous for the jewellery. There is an entire neighborhood plenty of jewellery shops the so called Thanga Maligai. I would not suggest to go to the small shops, cause the quality of gold or silver is not certified and usually when they see Western people prices rise as the pizza dough!
I bought some nice and good quality hearings and bracelets in GRT shop.
Grt are chain shops (you can find them in several areas in town ) they are certified and prices are fair.

I loved the Thanga Maligai area, a part for jewellery shops, there are also malls and cloths shops with very reasonable prices and lovely models!