Keep Smiling...............: Tour avec Veronique

I chanced upon this pin up in my guest house notice board.... and that's how I met Veronique.

While I went with no idea of what to expect, like I told her later 'it was ten x beyond anything I could have expected'. She's been living in Auroville for twenty years now, and it was like listening to it all first hand.... like from someone who understands it as an insider.

It was a very thoughtfully planned and warmly and humorously delivered tour. I'll do this one through the pictures, as I don't feel equipped to reproduce a lot of what she said, much as I would have loved to.

We met at the visitors center at 9 in the morning, and set off from there.

Madhavi from Kolkata on extreme right and Fernanda from Mexico on extreme left, and Veronique and me in center. My bike's sadly not in the picture :)

Laboratory of evolution, a library which houses a lot of what auroville is about.

Veronique showing us some publications..... starting us off right from planning stage

right from blue print kinds

one funny picture :)

Some girls learning bharatanatyam, we heard the taalam as we were walking and stopped to see...what an absolutely pretty outdoor auditorium

Savitri bhavan, another very interesting building which houses their philosophy, conference rooms and a meditation room

that's Savitri bhavan, with Aurobindo's statue on the outside

the conference cum meditation room

behind Savitri Bhavan

Savi - it's the go to place for anything to do with housing.... residents or guests

Another picture in Savi

What an interesting table...it kind of overwhelms you soon as you walk in.

It's called the peace table.

It is one of six magnificent tables created by master woodworker George Nakashima, placed in chosen sites on each of the continents of the world.

The table for Asia was presented to the Indian Govt who found Auroville to be the appropriate place for the table. Weekly meditations take place around the table.

Some contextual info on the tables:

"These trees had grown into extraordinary natural phenomena in the state of New York, something that, he said, "occurs perhaps only once in the history of a nation". They were about 1.5 metres in diameter at the small end, 2.1 metres at the flare, and 3.6 metres long. Their majesty called for a symbiosis of nature and man in the deepest spiritual sense, and Nakashima felt the ultimate creative concept of their presence: "The only true destiny of these noble trees, favoured to grow as none of their peers were able to, is to be used in their full length and width."

Two adjoining slabs opened to match to make the most expensive pieces of furniture ever, Tables for Peace measuring 3.6 by 3.6 metres, one for every continent on earth, was the answer.

Moving on......

This was at this fascinating store called Swaram. Not just a store, but like an outdoor park of musical instruments.....plus the workshop where they make the instruments. There were so many I'd never even seen before, like this one...you rub it and it makes this amazing sound

some outdoor instruments

Four hours in, we were ready to do lunch.

Naturellement, a cute cafe, also serving vegan food.... where we decided to do lunch.

During lunch. Veronique seems quite the clown :)

Fernanda is on a six month solo trip across Asia, and it was wonderful to hear how when she was in Vietnam, she met somebody who told her about Auroville, and she took an impromptu decision to detour. So inspiring.