Text and photos by Skand Agrawal
Sometimes, when the only thing planned about your trip is your stay, it gives the journey a sense of thrill. You never know which moment is going to become a memory forever. I made countless such memories in Auroville.
December was the month I chose to travel to Auroville. The only time when contrary to other months, sunlight makes enormous efforts to pierce through tiny spaces between the clouds and caress our faces. Also known as ‘The City of Dawn,’ Auroville is recognised as the first and only internationally endorsed ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness. The town is located a few kilometres inland from the Coromandel Coast, approximately 10 km from Puducherry.
Amid the mixed culture of Auroville, I was lucky to find a place at a commune. One of the interesting parts of the town is that you get to stay with the locals and outlanders. It allows you to know the actualities of the town. And, of course, lets you know the most exclusive and unmapped territory of the town. It was my first expedition where I deliberately didn’t make a list of places I should visit. Nor virtually map out my holiday.
So, for the first time, I could treat a holiday as a holiday and not a race to accomplish anything. In the first week, I did two things: got hold of an official map of the town and tried studying and marking the prominent places. And second, as I didn’t want to be recognised as a tourist anymore, I read through the weekly Auroville magazine to note down all the workshops I wanted to attend and the events where I could volunteer. Now I had a clear idea of how to spend my time in Auroville.
Exploring Auroville Cuisine
Over the days, the places where I took my meals got almost fixed. In the morning, I used to go either to ‘Town Hall Canteen’ or to an eatery called ‘Sustenance Farm’ to have the cheapest yet most flavoursome breakfast. It featured idlis dipped in a few varieties of sambar and chutney, followed by either a cup of filtered coffee or South Indian Chai.
The most interesting part of the day was the lunch, which I took at the well-known ‘Solar Kitchen’ of Auroville. The kitchen wasn’t known for its unique infrastructure or for being the tastiest in the world, but rather for the mechanics used to cook. it is THE only kitchen where all the food is prepared using sunlight, making it natural, unadulterated and really tasty.
The other special thing about the solar kitchen is that almost the entire town comes together at this place. It’s like a group of hostel students assembling in a mess for a meal, which makes the air so perky and lively. The experience took me back to the good old days of childhood when the entire family used to eat together and share the goings-on of their lives.
The Food Festival at Winter Volunteering in Auroville
Luckily, a food festival was to be organised shortly by the African pavilion which gave me a brilliant opening to volunteer. This was to become the most treasured part of my trip. All the folks who were working with me were also volunteers. And none except two of them belonged to the institution itself. Later, I found out that every event that happens in Auroville happens through the contributions of the volunteers.
It was so fascinating to learn this! A place where everything is organised by a bunch of temporary residents, travellers, explorers, or Aurovillians who just want to involve themselves with exciting activities. Inspiringly, despite none of the people knowing each other, all of us were so open to accepting the differences and relishing our shared moments. I think it is in the air of the town itself. Something that makes the dawn so satisfying and the dusk so beautiful. You get to learn new things and spontaneously build memories to last a lifetime.
Crafts at Auroville
Over a week and a half, we hung out in the pavilion to craft stunning things from old sarees to strips of tailored cloth, from used papers to crushed bottles, in fact from anything and everything which could be recycled and reused to decorate the aisles and the hut.
Owing to all the hard work, the show was a definite triumph, with myriad African food stalls preparing delicious foods, incredible local bands performing, various food eating competitions holding the maximum nut-crushing excitement, African drumbeats dancing, and the entire arena buzzing with the exhilaration of travellers and participants. It was definitely one hell of a moment to remember!
Some fun memories
In cities, we always try to find smooth cemented roads. But in Auroville, one tries to cycle through mud paths taking twists and turns through the dense woods. You try to recall the traces of the last one, but always end up discovering a new route.
A good thing is that every time you cycle, your pants get coloured brown. And eventually, you lose your interest in buying new clothes. In the second week, I volunteered for a Christmas celebration at a Unity Pavilion. Prepared a peanut butter and orange sandwich, crafted sparkling stars, decorated a miniature Christmas town, danced over Christmas carols and met a lot of volunteers specifically from Germany and Netherlands.
If you ask someone who has already explored Auroville extensively, you will get to know that a visit to the town without visiting Matrimandir is incomplete. So, I reserved myself a seat for the temple. My next thing should be to tell you how interesting was my experience of Matrimandir, but I won’t. Because language does not hold such a power to express the actualities of what one can say is a ‘Perfect Structure.’
Fun While Winter Volunteering in Auroville
I can only give you a glimpse of what really lies there. It’s like experiencing the truth. All I can say is that it was one of the best thing I ever did, and the world deserves to be there and know that. On my last day, we took a day off to a nearby beach, packed some food, played beach football and flying disc, read and slept. That marked a satisfying end to my trip.
I could just go on talking about the little things I did and enjoyed at Auroville. But I won’t. Because the idea behind the article is not to give an expression of my experience. Rather it is to give you a peek through the window at how unique and spectacular the town is. And yet, it remains surprisingly unexplored.
The culture, the people, the roads, the woods, the buildings, and the languages are all so astounding in one or the other way. It isn’t a place where a tourist comes for a day to check mark his list. Rather it’s a place where you need to settle for a while. To savour the taste of its culture and soak in its uniqueness. This winter volunteering in Auroville was indeed an experience I will cherish forever.
