Kishore

This is where it started

I was born in 1969 to a family who are traditional coffee growers in Karnataka. I was raised among beautiful nature, and went to boarding school at a very young age.

The school I went to is administered by the Ramakrishna Mission, and the emphasis on discipline takes the front seat there. In my growing years I disliked this kind of tutoring, but now when I look back I am happy to have gone through that tough disciplined system, which has taught me a lot.

From school I went on to graduate from a reputed college in Chennai (Madras), after which I got into working as a trainee manager for a big company marketing beer. This act of mine was just to buy time before I had to go back into the family business of growing coffee.
For some reason, though I liked where I came from, I did not fit into the lifestyle of coffee planters. I wanted much more than that.

My work lead me to Pondicherry

This very same job brought me to Pondicherry eleven years ago. The business part of my life took a nose-dive because things were not all that smooth. I did not have many friends either.
So I went to check the Ashram and instantly fell in love with the place and the atmosphere. My childhood memories started to replay, and I felt very comfortable. I made friends with an elderly woman whom I helped doing odd jobs at the Ashram, and with whom I could also pour out my grievances.
At the same time my buddies in the Chennai college wanted me to organise the then Auroville Band to play at their College Festival, so I took time off from work to venture into Auroville. There I met Sacha, one of the band members at that time, and we became friends. He offered me a guest place in Ami, and as things were still not so good for me on the business front, I took this opportunity to experience Auroville.
When I think of it I have to thank that elderly lady from the Ashram whose advice helped me to make the decision to join. She always said that Auroville would be a nice place for me to stay.

Auroville

In the beginning I came here to stay for just a short while..., that was in '91. But now, some ten years later, I am still here, strong and still alive, with so many different experiences already behind me that life has offered here.
From the very beginning I felt attracted to the idea of community living and the way people here interacted with one another. There was so much joy and smiles all around. As the years pass by, I see that things change, and of course so do I. From being very open to everything, I have become kind of restrictive in my approach. I would contribute this perhaps to changing patterns of one's life. I think many people find it easy to criticise various aspects of Auroville, but I also realise that it is everybody's duty to build this dream city, which I am confident will happen, and IS happening.
In the meantime whatever is happening in Auroville should be taken as work/experience towards progress.

Just to tell you about my first years in Auroville

I started helping in the Pour Tous snack bar. I enjoyed it a lot and it gave me the opportunity to meet many people. It was there that I met Nadaka, with whom I worked later running an antique shop in Pondicherry. After some years it was too tiresome to go to Pondicherry every day, and business did not seem too good, so we closed the shop and moved on with our lives. Nadaka went back to his first love, music, and I looked for something else to do.

And now!

My beautiful partner, Prema (who was born here), was designing clothes for herself which were appreciated by lots of people, and I liked her work too. So I mooted the idea of making this hobby of hers into a business venture. Thus 'Rangoli', a colourful experience was born. In the beginning I was only helping Prema with this venture. She was fortunate to find a place in the old Aurosarjan building for her office. A few months later, when a production place was getting available as well, I joined in. So now we work together, where she does all the designing, sourcing, etc, and I produce what she designs. We have a lot to learn from this experience, and we are happy the way things are going. If you ask me what Rangoli means, it means the same as the Tamil word 'Kolam' (design, pattern), but then in Kannada and Hindi.

Changing the world..

To sum up I will just quote a famous person: "You cannot change the whole world, but you can change a part of it by changing yourself." This is what I am always trying to do.

contact: kishore@auroville.org.in