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International Zone Newsletter

March, 2002

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Nov 01  (.rtf )

Dear Friends,

Presently the main days of February Festivity are over, and Auroville has already thinned out a little bit.. It is time to pull all the threads together and proceed with the work, enriched by all the contacts and possibilities.

Most recently

We enjoyed very much the performance of the dance troupe from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts on March 12th at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium! Thanks to all for making it happen.

January and February have been months full of activities in the International Zone.

• The arrival of the Staff and Students from the University of Washington in Seattle on 4th of January has now brought forward the first part of the US Pavilion, the student guesthouse, and even if it is not finalized, there is little doubt that it will be possible to inaugurate it on 4th of July this year (see Jill's report below).

• The Bharat Nivas compound has been bustling with work, and indeed, it was ready to be used for the Asia Urbs Conference during the Birthday week. In this conference hosted by Auroville, more than 90 delegates from European and Indian Cities participated under the theme of 'City Networking for a Sustainable Future and Human Unity'.

• What a pleasure, to walk in the Bharat Nivas compound after all these years, with the buildings showing off so beautifully, to see it surrounded by exhibitions representing the diverse work being done in Auroville, to have lunch or dinner in the round restaurant building that suddenly has become indeed a very, very beautiful restaurant. And to walk down to the Tibetan Cultural Pavilion and for the first time experience the interconnectedness and flow of the International Zone, not just as idea and vision, but as reality..

• On the 27th there was the consecration and laying of a Foundation stone for the Russian Pavilion. It was a very joyous occasion with Russian music, song, poetry and food. Together with the Russian Aurovilians and friends, the presence of the Consul -General of Russia giving an important support to this event and the participation of Dimitri von Mohrenschildt, now 99 years old, staunch supporter of the International Zone and the Russian Pavilion over the years, made it a very happy moment.

• The 28th of February, Auroville's birthday, found Auroville enveloped in a thick mist, rarely seen at this time of the year. The air was full of the tiniest droplets of water which together with the full moon made a beautiful and mysterious landscape. The amphitheater held so many people this time, and all were sitting together in silence. The Centre with the Urn was beautifully decorated with oil lamps, and when the fire was lit… We never had a fire like this… Such a clear flame of Aspiration, so full of the promise of a new world manifesting. It filled one with awe.

Jaya's report on the Unity Pavilion foundation-laying ceremony

"I had to leave the Bonfire early because of preparations for the Foundation laying ceremonies of the Unity Pavilion that would already begin at 6:30 a.m., and I can tell you it was hard to leave the fire. It was calling so strongly. The moon was full, and the sun would be rising opposite it, with this fire at its centre. Why want to be anywhere else?

But work taken up has to be done, and so on the scooter, and go to the site next to Savitri Bhavan. There the masons and mason helpers had already arrived and were mixing the cement. We proceeded to put out the mats and chairs, and mixed and poured the turmeric powder over the 1000 bricks, splashed kumkum powder on top, giving a beautiful appearance to those bricks: terracotta, ochre yellow and deep red. Then the baskets of roses and New Creation flowers. Piero and Gloria arrived in a taxi with the model of the Unity Pavilion building. The arrangements where finalised, music, brochures, sweets.

The people started arriving, but rather slowly as the function was directly after the bonfire and few people must have wanted to hurry. By close to seven we decided to start; Jaya welcomed everybody and Jill gave a small presentation of the Unity Pavilion project after which Aster played a recording of a few lines where Mother speaks about the Unity of the Nations, and then we had a moment of silence together.

Then everyone was invited to lay a brick. The bricks were heaped with flowers and placed in the trench where 3 masons were busy cementing them in. Suddenly there were so many people. Aurovilians, Friends from the Ashram and abroad, guests. Everybody was eager to participate and lay a brick. In the middle of all this activity the participants of the Asia Urbs Conference started arriving. Due to their 'sustainable transport' mode -they traveled per elephant, horse, with bullock carts both katha vandis and nella vandis, and bicycle rickshaw- , they were late.
But what a sight to behold!

And then Lakshmi, Pondicherry's temple elephant, came up to the site to lay a brick as well.., after which she graciously received her cashew sweet, nimbly picking it up with her trunk..

There was so much Divine Grace, pouring blessings on us.

The air full of happiness and laughter, wherever you turned there was a friendly and happy smile to greet you. And all in all, some 800 bricks had been laid, a good beginning! Some people laid more than one, some people may not have laid one, but we were happy and amazed that so many people had come to join us to start this building.

Slowly the function was over and together with the masons and helpers we tidied up the cement work, scattering the remaining rose petals over the brickwork. A moment of binding togetherness held us as we stood there on the site after all the people had left.

For me personally, this was not the end of the morning. A while after I had arrived home, a lot of jingling was heard in the forest just outside my house in Gaia. It was Lakshmi the elephant who was walking by, going homewards on a forest path less hard on her feet than the tar road.
So I went out and invited her to my house and had the great pleasure to not only feed her bananas, but also give her water and have her showering herself among my flowers before she continued her journey.
Thank you, Lakshmi -

Jill's report on the U.S. Pavilion

Now that everyone has gone and we can collect our thoughts.. First, I would say to everyone involved a great BRAVO! and THANKS!

In spite of all the obstacles, we managed to keep the differences at bay and keep in mind always the goal of the U.S. Pavilion work. That we managed to bring the students here and that they succeeded in coming in "on time and within the budget" is also great.

The closing ceremony was very moving: Every one of the 42 guests got a small 'thank you' present from AVI USA. The U.S. Consular General, Bernard Alter, spoke first and told of his connection with Auroville and his pride in seeing this project have such a good start; Willy (one of the teaching assistants) spoke on behalf of the students and challenged us to live up to the ideals of Auroville as we continue our work on site; Sergio spoke for the Program and was happy to have reached a final design that pleased us. He also mentioned the good work with the Tamil workers; Bill Leon, AVI USA President, said how happy AVI USA was with the results of the Design/Build project and gave us all a big pat on the back; Jill spoke for the P7 (i.e. the 'USA Pavilion Organizing Team of 7') and thanked everyone and mentioned the uniqueness of the collaboration; Kartik spoke for the workers and (as Selvaraj translated from Tamil) said how happy they all were to work with the students - how they felt them to be 'brothers and sisters' and that they would miss them very much.

We were served, on site, a traditional banana leaf meal. A few Americans showed up - like Barbara and Akash - who hadn't come before to share in the leave taking. As the sun was setting, we hugged each other and took a moment to enjoy the sky. Then, in the evening, many of us came to Juanita's for scrumptious desserts and a final, rooftop concert by Devi Prasad. Slowly, as darkness fell, people drifted away to the sweet music of the sarod and tabla, played under a beautiful, star filled sky.

On the level of the results vis à vis the International Zone: I think we succeeded in giving a very favorable impression to all of Auroville on the viability of such a project, especially the aspect of collaboration with University programs which would bring students here to design and build. I think we have encouraged other Pavilion groups to go ahead with their dream. The process of finding answers to the larger questions of sharing water and infrastructure has begun.

The building itself, its design and execution so far is very well done. Here is a short message which I sent upon request to Mauna for the AV Website about the work:

"Thirty two students -'pasty faced white kids' (as one teaching assistant called them) arrived January 4th to begin their exciting, often bewildering journey in Auroville. Including professors and teaching assistants, the group of 42 set the goal of designing and building the first structure on the U.S. Pavilion site of the International Zone. Working almost non-stop with a team of Tamil masons and carpenters, the group of very able bodied college students, who came from such diverse departments as 'School of Architecture', 'Landscape Design' and 'Forestry Resources' succeeded in creating an innovative, sophisticated, playful structure which should be finished in July.

The U.S. Student Guest House has 4 rooms with a total of 12 beds and the latest in compost toilets, wastewater treatment plant, solar energy systems, landscape design, water cistern and tank, and a breeze catching 'super roof' which will keep the whole structure super cool and shaded.

Many Thanks to Mario, Kartik and his team; the UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DESIGN/BUILD PROGRAM and AVI-USA for making it (financially) possible - and thanks to the P7 team for all their hard work here and there!"

Give thanks

I think it is a moment when we can congratulate each other and take a breath and give thanks. Then, 'tomorrow' we can start thinking about what happens next!
See also the International Zone pages in the City section of this site, or go to:

See for further info and photos:
www.aviusa.org/projects_usapavilion.html 

http://courses.washington.edu/uwbasic/projects/dbindia/index.html 

www.geoeducation.org 

Jill and Jaya for the International Zone Group

jillswar@auroville.org.in

nicojaya@auroville.org.in