Living Routes: Auroville 2008 Spring

Significant events

Contrary to what my previous posts may have had you believing, my term here in India has not been all delicious food, cute children, cows on the streets and jangly anklets. Those were just the easier things to write about. The other bits, the harder bits, don't have pictures to write cute captions for. There is no "light" way to write about them, no obvious tone to adopt for an insightful or entertaining blog post, no concise concluding paragraph to sum it all up. I could omit...

Solitude Farm

On the second day of service learning at Solitude we started work on the house. The �Sultan of Solitude,� a.k.a. Krishna, asked us what we would like to get out of the experience and what kind of work we would prefer to do. �Whatever�s needed, sir. We are at your command,� we replied. So he sent us off to work on the house. Working on the house meant taking handfuls of mud (dirt, water, some sand, some human hair, and a touch of cow manure) and smearing it over chicken wire and metal...

Solitude Farm

This is Annie's blog entry... I believe that my experience at Solitude taught me about a multitude of components intrinsic to running an organic farm with a clear vision for social- and self- sustainability. Being present on a daily basis and open to interactions with whoever happened to also be there gave me the chance to engage with both travelers from around the world � who shared their stories � and with the local Tamil villagers � who shared their love and language. I loved being able...

WELL Paper

�Good morning!� I holler as I climb the crumbling concrete stairs. �Hello! How are you!� respond eight of the most beautiful women I have ever come to know. They sit in a circle lining the edges of the small dark room. Newspapers, scissors, hammers, rulers, and small metal tea cups are scattered all over the room. Stacked high are hand woven baskets made from recycled newspapers. The women have spent many hours crafting the baskets by hand, while giggling and teasing one another the way...

Pitchandikulam Forest

Pitchandikulam Forest is a 63-acre patch of land on the outskirts of Auroville, India. Founded in 1973, Pitchandikulam�s mission was, and continues to be, the revival of the bits of Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF) that are still in existence. Throughout the centuries the TDEF has been almost completely wiped out by the many civilizations that have occupied the area. Today no more than 500 acres of undisturbed TDEF remains. Today Pitchandikulam Forest is an environmental...

Discipline Farm

Auroville is an intentional community in southern India. People from all over the world come to live here with the notion of realizing human unity. Auroville has also become a place for people to develop innovative ways to live sustainably in a holistic sense (spiritually, ecologically, personally). The working units that have sprouted up in this community reflectively promote different aspects of sustainability. Living Routes is a study abroad program that has for the last ten years...

Solitude Farm

Food has never tasted so good! I don�t think I ever fully appreciated what goes into a meal until I started working at Solitude. Solitude is an all-natural, organic farm that serves lunch five days a week for Aurovillians and guests. The meals, served on banana leaves, consist of the heartiest local grains, like varagu or samai, along with sambar, saut�ed pumpkin and fresh salad. The food itself is incredibly healthy and tasty, but what makes it so delicious is having been a part of...

My Work as A Pale Male at WomenPower

Throughout this semester I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with Auroville Village Action Group, specifically the WomenPower program. WomenPower uses microlending clubs as a basis for economically empowering Tamil women. With over 700 clubs and nearly 3,500 women in all of the clubs, WomenPower has built a strong reputation and becaome a powerful social force around Auroville. WomenPower also hosts many seminars, workshops, and Women's Days to introduce health issues,...

Martuvam Healing Forest

Martuvam Healing Forest began in 2002 by a man named Sivaraj, with help from the Netherlands based Isaimayam Trust, along with the Pitchandikulam bio-resource center. The healing forest was planted with herbs, bushes and trees that are used in the Siddha-system of medicine, a traditional form of south-Indian healing that is similar to Ayurvedic herbal healing. According to Sivaraj, his intent in creating the healing forest was to revive traditional healing practices by providing...

Pete's Solitude Entry

This is Pete Wackernagel's blog entry. Solitude is a farm who's primary vision is centered on self-sufficiency. This is vastly important to our studies of sustainability because self-sufficiency is effectively the apex of the pyramid of sustainability. They do not talk about sutainability at Solitude as a goal or as something that they are working toward, because this is irrelevant. Self-sufficiency lies beyond sustainability, and thus it is not even an issue. Sustainabilty is...

Our New Home: Naturellement

This semester, we worked at a food processing unit called Naturellement. The company was founded in 1990 by a Swedish Aurovillian, Martina Ljungquist, who wanted to make jams from fresh, natural ingredients and to give women from nearby Tamil villages a positive work environment. Now, Naturellement employs 21 women from these villages, all of whom have become our sister, aunties, and friends. Despite some language and cultural barriers, we have been able to share laughter, hugs, and LOTS...

Living Routes Mourns the Loss of One of Our Students

It is with great sadness that we report that Katherine "Katie" Sherman, a member of Living Routes' spring 2008 India program, died last Thursday while studying abroad with us. Katie's unexpected death was neither due to any program-related activities, nor was it in any way associated with the site or country in which she was studying. Medical and police authorities have determined that there was no 'foul play' involved. Katie, a University of Massachusetts Amherst junior...

cutest

I used to think that Asian kids were the cutest (I put that prejudice down to genetics, being half-Japanese) but I think my recent inundation with such a high concentration of cute Indian kids may be swaying my thinking. Here are a couple pictures of what I'm talking about (and I haven't even taken pictures of the 40 three-year-olds I've been hanging out with at the daycare at Mohanam Cultural Centre!) This little rascal was...

food glorious food

Food is a pretty big thing here. It seems like we are always eating. Eating delicious, delicious food, might I add. And, when we're not eating lunch at one of the many yummy places in Auroville (or dinner cooked by our Tamil ammas at College Guest House) we're being invited into village homes and practically force-fed by the gracious and hospitable Tamil friends we have made at our different service learning...

so sari, oh so sari

Saris, saris everywhere. These women are dressed up for a festival, but honestly, their saris are this colourful every single day. I think the reason they can wear such bright colours is because their dark skin balances it out. There is no colour that these women cannot wear. Really. Who do you know who can wear an entire outfit of bright peach and look absolutely killer? That's what I thought.