Our trip starts today ! For the first time in our lives, we step over the mysterious lands of India ! During the flight we had the luck to be sat next to an indian couple that really liked talking and ended up giving us loads of suggestions on where and how to visit their country. Now its time for us to explore with our eyes ! Stepping out from the airport, we’re immediately welcomed by both the tropical heat and thousands of people offering the “best-rate” to go somewhere. Luckily, our taxi-driver is awaiting for us with our name written in big bold capital letters. Too fancy for our first day ! This taxi is going to bring us to our first destination: Auroville, a small village where we’re going to stay at a friend of ours (she was the one to send us her loyal taxi-driver to come and get us at the airport). Along the way, only when the first light of the morning starts to shine we actually realise that WE ARE IN INDIA !
In this part of the country, Auroville is very famous and described by everyone as a hippie community where anyone can find peace and tranquillity away from the indian chaos. This village was built at the end of the 60s based on the idea of creating a place where nationalities, religions, political and economical statuses don’t matter at all; the people living there are only meant to share and exchange knowledge between each other for free. Auroville was created by the indian Sri Aurobindo and the parisian Mirra Alfassa, known here as The Mother.
At a first glance, entering Auroville feels like entering in a forbidden paradise (keep in mind that to be allowed in you have to either know someone living there OR have your accomodation there). The community is spread onto a huge area of tidied-up forest which features hundreds of dirt roads and scattered houses all around. This is not all ! At the center of the village you can find the so-called Matrimandir (temple of the mother in Sanskript); the structure itself is a huge round golden ball surrounded by beautiful meditation gardens where silence sovereigns at any hour. The inner rooms of the Matrimandir are also dedicated to meditation with a mix of coloured lights and walls giving you the best relaxing meditation experience ever. Fascinating !
Thanks to our friend Silvana, we are to see what’s around the not-so-small village. Unexpectedly, Auroville offers anything you could imagine to be there in another town: cinema, library, places to sport or get a massage, a big dining room for everybody, restaurants… without any doubts, getting bored is something not on the list. On top of that, people always welcome you in places, everyone is smiling, everyone is relaxed, nothing to do with what’s outside. And this makes us think… the line between forbidden paradise and isolated world is very thin.
In the end, we just enjoy the time here ! Silvana let us use one of her scooter so that we get the chance to roam around the alleys of Auroville by ourselves. Are we hungry ? We can get a tasty pizza at a restaurant or eat barefoot in the common dining room. Do we want to listen to music ? The small library also let you take home CDs for a couple of days. Better to cook home ? We can go and buy veggies/fruit at the local all-cultivated-inside-Auroville market. Everything for everyone !
One of the evenings, we happen to be present while there is a group meditation in a small open-theatre in front of the Matrimandir. Relaxing music, incense, the sky turning orange, people form different nationalities sitting or lying down, silence, everyone with their eyes closed and harmony in their lips… After some meditating, even if this is a kind of isolated bubble from the indian reality, its not that bad to spend our first day here: Auroville has become our connection between Europe and India.
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