Limei

Li Mei
One of the "oldtimers"...

A little about your background and why did you decided to move to Auroville from Bali?

Not from Bali: from Badinage. I'm a multi-cultural person, my dad was Chinese and my mom was Dutch, but I was born in Indonesia. I went to Holland for my high school because my parents didn't like the high schools in Indonesia. In Holland I met a person whose daughter was living in Auroville and that's when I heard about Auroville. Ever since I left Indonesia, I was in contact with western ideas and my way of thinking was western, and every time I went home for holidays I felt out of place. It started to become clear that I did not want to live in Indonesia because of the way of thinking, and neither in Holland because it was too cold. That's about the time I came to Auroville with this guy. And when I set foot on the Auroville ground I knew that I was going to stay here. I went to Holland to finish my schooling, but I stopped and was about to come to Auroville when my father died, so I had to go to Indonesia and then I came to stay permanently in January '77.

What's the most memorable experience that you have from the first years in Auroville?

In the early years? I think it was the feeling that I knew people even before I talked to them. And this happened quite a few times.

Were you always into painting on T-shirts and silk or did the inspiration come while being here?

That came while I was here.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Badminton and anything that interests me.

For a while we all saw you working at Pour Tous, - what do you do now, and do you enjoy doing it?

I work in the library in CFL. I wanted to be around children but not working with them directly, so the library was the best solution to the question.

Auroville is so different from anywhere else, - what do you like most about Auroville, and what would you like to improve if you could?

The best thing I like about Auroville is the mixture of all the different nationalities. What I would like to see changed is more interaction between the different language groups.

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