Auroville is a city just North of Pondicherry and was founded by a French woman known as Mother and a man named Sri Aurobindo. The city was founded on the idea of making a universal city that would belong to no single nation. It was to be a city where money was not a factor in daily life and where all the residents accepted and surrendered to "the divine power". In the1970s, when the city was founded, the land was arid and not much could be grown. With the perseverance of the the first Aurovillians, the land is now rich with forests and fields where organic fruits and vegetables are grown. The ultimate goal was to make the city self-sufficient. It was meant to be an example city for the rest of the world and aimed to eventually have 55 000 citizens, but today, around 40 years later, the city has only attracted 2 500 permanent residents and has not expanded as much as anticipated.
We arrived in Auroville by bus from Pondicherry. Not having much information about the city, we set off by foot from the bus stop, not knowing that we would only reach the city center 8 kilometers later. We walked for a long time, until the sun was about to set and until a friendly woman on a motorbike stopped to ask if she could help us find something. When we told her we were looking for the city center to find a guest house, she have us a strange look and told us that in about 500 meters there was a dirt path that led to a guesthouse and that it would be best to inquire about a room there since finding a room would be complicated once there was no sunlight. Luckily for us, there was a hut available and the next morning, we realized just how lucky we had been. Auroville is a large circle with a diameter of 20 kms. It is sparsely populated making it difficult to get anywhere without a motorbike. Also, because of the recent cyclone, the city had no electricity and therefore no street lights at night. Where we stayed was no exception. Thankfully, on most nights the moon was bright enough to provide a bit of lighting.
The center of Auroville, or the soul of the city as the residents call it, is the Matrimandir, a huge golden sphere that resembles something from outer space. The inside space is used as meditation space. The interior is entirely white, from the carpets, to the wall colour and even the colour of marble used to make the stairs! It was quite an impressive structure to see.
In Auroville, we stayed in our first hut. It was elevated and made entirely out of wood and palm leaves. It was big enough for the mattress that was on the floor and a few shelves on either side of the bed. Since we had no electricity, as soon as the sun set it became very dark inside and we needed to use a flashlight or a candle to avoid hitting our heads on the angled roof. Overall, staying in a hut was a great experience!
Since one of the founding ideas of the city was a life free of money, Auroville only accepts payments made with the Aurocard, their version of a pre-paid credit card, which you can only get if you are staying for more than 5 days. At first, we were thinking of staying only a few nights, but since it was complicated to stay a short while, we decided to stay longer and signed up to get an Aurocard. The guesthouse we were staying at had a kitchen and there was a grocery store for the Aurovillians that only accepted the Aurocard as a method of payment, so by obtaining the card, we would finally be able to cook our own meals. As soon as we got our motorbike, we headed to the grocery store, bought some locally made cheese and crackers and had that for lunch. It was fantastic to finally eat some good cheese!
The main restaurant in Auroville was a cafeteria style restaurant called the Solar Kitchen. It was powered entirely by solar power and all of the food served was organic and locally grown. The leftovers of the meals were donated to a local animal shelter.
We ended up staying in Auroville for 10 nights and explored the surrounding areas with our motorbike. This bike was very old and the horn did not work, which is almost essential for driving in India, and neither did the gas gauge, causing us to run out of gas three
times. The first time, we made our way to the gas station, but they had no gas, so we had to go to the village, where they sell gas in plastic bottles. Unfortunately for us, the village was too far and once we got on the highway, we stalled on the side of the road. While trying to figure out what to do, a man on a motorcycle stopped and asked if we needed help. After hearing our problem, he emptied a liter of his gas into an empty water bottle and gave it to us. We were incredibly thankful and quickly made our way to the village to add some oil, since the motorbike required oil in the gas. The second time we ran out if gas was on our last day when we went to Pondicherry with another couple from the guesthouse and upon arriving, we stalled. By the end of the day, we had found some gas and headed back to Auroville. We were around 1 km from the dirt path that led to our guesthouse when we stalled again and had to roll the bike the rest of the way. Thankfully, we were leaving the next day so we did not have to make our way to the village to get more gas! Another problem we encountered with the bike was the headlight burning out. This was a very big problem since there were no street lights and it was dark when it happened. As a replacement, I had to hold Marco's cell phone with the flashlight application turned on to light up the road ahead. Every few seconds, I had to be sure to touch the screen or else the light would go out! The only positive thing about renting this bike was the cheap price; 60 rupees per day, which is about 1.20CAD per day!
Everywhere in Auroville there was evidence of the recent cyclone. While walking along what remained of the beach, we could see many dead fish and sea creatures lying in the sand. The destruction was everywhere but the community seemed to work together to clear the damage and return to life as it was before the storm.
Our next stop was the Andamans Islands.