Another month gone by!

Hi there, finding a spare moment here and there is indeed are rare thing. And so, I blink, and another month passes by. I guess I'll fill you in on the past month to start...

 

So at the end of Feb we took a trip to Banyan beach, which is 5-10 mins down the main road towards Pondicherry. It's not as badly eroded as the Repos beach which is opposite the Auroville turn off and as the weather hots up, it's nice to remember that we are living very close to the sea.

 

 

I'm also undergoing a transition between jobs. My time at Nandini has been a great way to meet people within the community but I don't feel I can provide them with the full time hours that they need and the hectic, hustle and bustle of the place is exhausing for my somewhat introverted soul. It's more than I can take on with a small child to look after and a house to manage as well as persuing my own interests and integrating into life here.

 

I am in a surprising situation, well, surprising compared to the UK, in the sense that I am potentially valuable as an employee here. Being a native English speaker with admin/computer skills is something much sought after and without even looking I have been offered 2 jobs. I've settled on a job working as an administrator in the Town Hall. I feel it will suit my need for quiet and organisation. The hours are the same as K's kindergarten hours and can be flexible during school holidays. Plus I have a nice view of the Matrimandir!

 

I've also started up yoga classes again. A twice weekly class has started in the community next to ours. It's free to volunteers which is a big help since our papers are still in the ether and it's only a minute's walk from my front door. It's been great to have a couple of hours to myself, for me each week.

 

The garden is looking good although how things will cope with the coming summer is anyone's guess. We already recycle some water for them to minimise water usage as well as timing the watering at dusk when it's coolest.

 

The papaya tree started flowering a few weeks back...

 

 

 

...and now has a few baby papayas sprouting!

 





 

 

 

We're having a go at growing cucumbers vertically, useful for the balcony. The plant seems really happy and has been growing so quickly. We're trying to concentrate on growing things that always get used in our house. It's easy to get carried away with the amount of different things you can grow!

 

 

 

A neighbour recently moved out and passed on some plants and baby trees, this is a kumquat tree which we'll leave to grow in a pot on the balcony. We were also given some passionfruit plants which we have planted along the hedge behind our back doors, an avocado tree - planted in the front garden and a lemon tree - planted out back.

 

 

 

We're also growing beans, similar to kidney beans which seem to be doing well although the bottom leaves have all fallen off. Might be a little while until we have enough for a stew though!

 

 

 

Here is one of the few troughs just for decorative purposes, it doesn't get any sun so these plants seem very happy here. I love ferns especially so want a few potted ferns up here eventually too.

 

 

 

On the other balcony we're growing three different varieties of chilli.

 

 

We're really loving how the garden is coming along and it is immensely satifying to eat food grown at home. It is a gradual process though, I tend to get impatient and want it all to look exactly how I imagine it at once!

 

We've also been meeting some local residents, this is a common house spider here. They're totally harmless but a bit massive so I do try to get them out as I am not great with bugs. They're fast though!

 

 

 

This is our local lizard, he's beautiful.

 

 

 

These are called 'Lovebugs', they mate at this time of year and can be seen crawling about in pairs.

 

 

 

This is some kind of mantis, I spent a good 20 mins watching this fella, he was amazing. He moved just like a leaf in the wind...

 

...and looked like one too.

 

 

We met this Very Hungry Caterpillar a few weeks back. He is a hawk moth caterpillar. He was huge and spent hours and hours eating. All the kids in the community enjoyed meeting him and having a stroke. he has big spots on the back of his head which when he's agitated will puff out to give the look of a snake.

 

 

 

Other than work, gardening and meeting creatures over the past few weeks we have been trying to spent more time in the water. We have a friend with a private pool and have finally made it to the public pool, La Piscine.

 

 

 

We also made it up the ECR (East Coast Road) to the furthest Auroville community, Eternity. We're friends with the kids that grew up there, now all adults. The land opens up onto the nicest beach I've seen on this side of India. It's well worth the half hour drive.

 

 

 

 On Mon (24th) K's class came to visit in the morning. The class visits a different child's house each Monday in an effort to get to know each other and gain an insight into how the children live.

 

Here they are settling down for a snack, I made some chocolate and banana cakes for the occasion. It went really well although I admit that me and C were a little nervous of having 13 children running about the place. It was a nice way for the children to get to know K who is still the new kid in many ways.

 

 

 

So, all in all it's been the usual mix of work and play. Tourist season is coming to a close and life here is settling down for a long hot summer.

 

Many residents leave for at least a few weeks if not months to their countries of origin at this time of year, leaving just a few behind. As we've not long been here and have minimal funds we'll be staying this summer.  

 

I'm looking forward to the inevitable slowing down of the pace of life that only extreme weather can cause but I do get irritable in hot weather so am planning to spent a large portion of the coming months submerged in water.

 

 

That's all for now. Sending love from India.

 

Laura.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last week...

Hi there, we've just had a wonderfully sociable week which is a welcome change to the usual standard busy week.

On Monday we visited a friend who has a pool (we stayed with her in 2012 when we visited), it's a lovely place to relax. She also gave us a big bag of fresh coconuts harvested from her trees. They're so good, the coconut water sweet and the flesh still soft. Delicious.

 

 

On Wednesday afternoon we visited Transition School for their annual dress up parade. The school is the main school in AV for ages 7-16. The theme this year was 'A New World' which left it very open to different costumes.

 

Getting a better view.

 

Each grade had their own time to show off their outfits starting with the youngest...

 

...to the biggest. We have friends whose children go to this school so it was nice to cheer them on too. It was funny to think that we might well be here in a couple of years to cheer K on, all dressed up. C was also happy to see that some of the teachers that used to teach him were still there.

 

 

 

On Thursday evening we wert to a fundraising dinner for a small independant school known as TLC (The Learning Community). Here's a little info on the school:

 

'The Learning Community' (TLC) is an experiment in Integral Education that opened its doors in Auroville in July 2009. A core group of adult facilitators and other external teachers offering a variety of subjects to those interested and an increasing group of children aged 7-10 years form the basis of this steadily running project. 

The main aim of the school is to create a space where children and adults, by living and working together, can grow more conscious of their inner and outer being. The Aurovilian team endeavours to offer a space where children and adults have access to a great variety of different environments, each having a specific gift to share. They see the community of Auroville as a school in itself and by the exposure to these different environments (through the tool of a ‘moving classroom’), children will naturally engage in a process of learning, develop faculties, and will be able to create their own conditions for growth and happiness.

 

A friend of ours volunteers there as her eldest son goes there (the youngest going to Transition), it's great that such places are readily available here. If K doesn't find convential schooling works for him then I'd certainly consider letting him attend this school. Funny really as I'd always advocated convential schooling as it had worked well for me but the more I learn about my son and the environment we now live in, I see that we really have a great chance to support him with an educational style that suits him (homeschooling is just not for us). His kindergarten already follows a Montessori style of teaching which I find is much kinder and creative than his nursery in the UK.

 

Anyway, the dinner was lovely, lots of low tables on mats with candles out in the open with a meat, veg and vegan option The food cooked and donated by various parents, volunteers and restaurants. The childen from the school were the waiters, dressed in black and white with a red sash around their waists (a number of them had been into Nandini for white tops over the past week or two). There was a live group playing called Balkan Masala which created the perfect ambiance.

 

K met with some classmates and spent the evening running about and having great fun. After dinner the kids put on a play, a comedic whodunnit, written by one of the volunteers which was so lovely to see. There was also a circus display and a fire show. It was truly heartwarming to see so many like minded people and their beautiful smiling free spirited children coming together to help this tiny school of around 25 pupils build a new classroom. It's moments like this that I feel I am home. :)

 

On Sat it was the annual music festival at Solitude organic farm, was another chance to see the wider community come together to raise money and awareness at various stalls with some great music thrown in for good measure.

 

 

We got some new seeds, including cucumber and capsicum and flower seeds for the garden border.

 

Beautiful handpainted art, have my eye on a flower of life hanging but I know where they're based so it can wait for another time...

 

K and a classmate in their papa's chappals (flipflops)

 

Balkan Masala - just super music.

 

So needless to say, we had a nice quiet day yesterday. Today we awoke to the surprise sound of rain and it's still coming down hours later. It's so good for the plants as we had such a small amount during monsoon season.

 

Lastly I wanted to show you how K's papaya tree is getting on. Here it is in Oct last year:

 

 

And here it is now (well, a few weeks ago). It's just started flowering and we are pretty sure it's a female so should be blessed with fruit within a few months.

 

 

Here's a recent shot of our house, the garden is coming along nicely. More about that in my next post.

 

Speak soon, Laura ॐ

 

Little update...

Hi, today I wanted to write about how I've been getting on on a personal level. Our days here are filled with things to do and sometimes it's good to stop and think about the stuff going on below the surface.

The past few weeks have marked a big change in my attitude to my surroundings, I feel much less nervous about venturing out on my own. Last week I went on a shopping trip to Pondy for work and was left alone at one point waiting for a taxi to take me and some of our purchases to the next shop. When I first arrived, this would have been too much for me but finally I was totally at ease, as I would have been in the UK getting a taxi. I can now drive down the main Auroville road to Kuilyapalyam where the old Pour Tous, Bakery and original post office are and I even feel ready to tackle Pondy on my own (by bus, not driving!).

It's been quite a turning point and ties in with making new (old in some ways - I've known some people since my first time here) friends and making time to visit them. I even got invited to a girls evening with a pot luck dinner last week. After 5 months of missing my few treasured friends it was so nice to have a laugh, a little drink and lots of cake. I really felt like part of the gang and also pleased that I was finally in a position to leave C at home for the evening with K and go off by myself (well, I got a lift with someone as it's not so safe to travel alone at night for a female).

It may seem like something that shouldn't take 5 months to some people but it feels like the right time for me. There's no hurry. On some level we're still settling in. Our papers are still in the system so we're not yet officially recognised as members of the community. It's a big lesson in patience as there's nothing we can do to speed the process up. Been waiting 5 months now!

Tourist season is in full swing here now, interesting to view from the otherside. It does mean we get groups of them wielding cameras walking through our community, snapping everything in sight and sometimes even asking to look inside the house. The traffic is much busier and due to the poor monsoon the roads are very dusty. Not everyone living here appreciates tourist season but I want to try to keep in mind that their revenue, input in the form of volunteering and positive energy really helps the community at large and that nearly everyone was a tourist here at some point.

It's been a good start to the year and I hope that it just gets better as things unfold, opportunities arise and we become more settled in our lives here. It's not been easy and there's still some work to be done but so far, thanks in part to my link to home via the internet, I've felt good about our move and homesickness has been kept to a minimum. I've found that rediscovering albums from my past has been helpful too. Being removed from the place I lived those times has given me perspective and helped me to really appreciate my history and identity. It can be a comfort in a place where you have yet to carve a niche for yourself.

Anyway, love to all those suffering in the UK with all the flooding, espcially my nearest and dearest in Somerset. You're in my thoughts, stay safe. xx

More soon, Laura.

Shopping and cow racing...

Hi there!

Well, Jan has flown by. The lady I worked with decided to leave at the end of Dec meaning it's been just me and R who works part time since then. On the 14-16th Jan was the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal which is a big celebration and warrents one or three new outfits for each Tamil and their family.

To prepare for that, on the 8th, me, R and A who works in the tailor section of Nandini headed up to Chennai for a full day of shopping. Mostly we shop in Pondy as it's much closer but for certain items (sarees, punjabi material, mens t-shirts and shirts, jeans etc) it's much more cost effective to spend the day in Chennai. We tend to go there once every 3-4 months and this was my first time.

We set off at 6am in our taxi, stopping just once at around 8.30 for breakfast. Once we were in Chennai it took quite a while to head through the city to our first destination. The traffic was so busy! By 10am we were at the first shop, a huge place selling sarees, material, tops etc. We went in and with our price range in mind started to pick stuff out.

 

 

2 hours later we stumbled out of there into the bright hot midday sun leaden down with huge bags of Indian ladies clothing and several thousand rupees lighter.

 

Next we went to a textile area known as Old Washermenpet, this is where the sweatshop export rejects end up. Huge sacks of clothing are bought by the kilo and sold off at bargain prices. Often these places are just rooms full of piles of clothing where you have to check each item for stains, defective stitching etc, I saw plenty of recognised brands from home.

 

It's not something I feel totally comfortable with, especially since Auroville is meant to be a progressive, ecologically sound place but it's the trade off for supply and demand and is very big business here in India. Demand is big at Nandini especially amongst the Tamil community but to tailor make everything to people's needs would take too much time, labour etc and wouldn't be cost effective. Already a mens shirt costs 400rs which is an adults monthly contribution, add to the fact that they want shorts, a t-shirt, underwear maybe even a pair of trousers at the same time and you end up with a co-operative that isn't self sustaining. Anyway, I still don't feel right about it and didnt feel right about taking photos at those places either.

 

I did get a pic from the t-shirt shop however:

 

 

By 7pm we were done and with the taxi groaning under the weight of our bags and sacks of clothing we made our way home, getting back and unloading the car at 11pm. Phew!

 

The next day we did our best to get all the new stock priced and put in with the old stock ready for the onslaught of the Pongal shopping frenzy.

 

Sure enough the Friday and Saturday were manic, especially with just two of us. We closed on the final day of Pongal, the Thursday as did many other businesses which freed me, C and K up to attend the celebrations in Kuilapalayam, a nearby village. The main event being the cow race, which I saw during my first visit to India 6 years ago.

 

We arrived at 10am just as the market area was setting up - we had a look at the wares, mostly super cheap plasticy toys, plastic and stainless steel homewares and food stands.

 

 

Then we headed to the village square area and watched the place gradually fill up with people of all ages and races. People lined every available space on roofs, balconies, in trees etc. Kids clutching their new cheap plasticy toy, ladies in their finest sarees and punjabis with beautiful flowers in their hair, men in their jeans and shirts, hair slick and shiney with oil and baggy clothed backpacked tourists, camera in hand waiting for the spectacle. We recognised quite a few Aurovillians too, mostly those with kids, which was nice for K to have some partners in mischief.

 

 

Candy floss seller - a regular sight along the beach in Pondy:

 Bag seller, a regular sight everywhere you find tourists: 

 

Then came the cows, each one lead through the throng to a huge cheer by their owners/entourage. Nearly all were painted/decorated with baloons, bananas, flowers, bells etc

 

 

 

 

 

The only undecorated cow :)

 

Once most of the cows had passed by, C turned to me and said, "it's a shame that they're not having the usual banana fight", just as the first banana got thrown. It's not as bad as it sounds as the local bananas are tiny but they tend to spatter on impact. I got a rough film of the madness which you can see here: Pongal Banana Fight

 

Apologies for the poor quality, but you hopefully get the idea...

 

A shot of the usually empty square:

 

I'm ending today with a film of the race itself. Again apologies for the shakiness but maybe it just adds to the overall effect ;)

Cow Race!

 

Me and C are gearing up for a night away this coming Sunday when we head off to Bangalore whilst C's mum has K overnight for the first time. We're going to a gig featuring artists from UK label Twisted Records (Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Younger Brother and Prometheus). We're seen them all bar Prometheus before in London and at festivals but to see them here in India should be interesting, I'm especially interested to see how modern India does nightlife, surely it can't be like UK nightlife...can it??? Anyway, it'll be fun. A night out together is a very rare thing indeed and it's our 7 year anniversary the following week so it seems fitting we see artists we danced to when we first got together.

 

More soon.

 

Laura

ॐ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy new year!

Wishing you all a happy new year!

I really love Sundays, I currently work Tues-Sat so Sunday is the only full day I get with my family. Today I didn't wake up until 7.40 - what bliss!

 

It's the day that the doors all get flung open, the dusty floors get swept and washed to some upbeat music (today it was Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Chilli Peppers) and the rugs get washed of the red earth that clings to everything. Then the day is ours, some films, snacks, maybe some time spent gardening, sometimes we go out for lunch. It's just so nice to have no obligations for one day. I always feel so happy once the house has been scrubbed of it's weekly dirt. Many people here employ an 'amma' - an Indian woman cleaner to keep their houses, laundry etc in order but I prefer to do that work myself.

 

C is currently digging out front, we're putting in more grass for now and K is playing with his lego collection which got bigger over the festive season.

We had a wonderfully different tropical Christmas. The day dawned at 6am and K followed not long after. The snack we left out for Father Christmas had to be put on a dish in a dish of water to prevent the ants from getting to it before he did!

 

Then it was time for opening a few presents before breakfast. Some from Father Christmas and a new lego set from us which C also had fun building.

 

A very different Christmas morning view:

 

Then breakfast followed by a few more presents and a celebratory glass of wine for me and C with 'Now That's What I Call Christmas' playing on the laptop. 

 

New scooter:

 

 and Hot Wheel track from C's mum:



 

 Us 3

 

Then it was off to a Swedish Christmas brunch with some extended family of C's mum's partner. It was really nice especially as K is friends with the other two boys - the eldest is in the class above him at Kindergarten. We left full of goodwill and the most amazing pumpkin pie and spent the afternoon watching a film feeling stuffed and, of course, opening a few more presents including a couple of brilliant sets of books from my Uncle and Grandma:

 

 

In the evening we went to the Youth Centre for their Dosai night which was a nice way to finish off the day.

 

On the 28th, the Youth Centre hosted it's annual Christmas Fair - this year entitled Fair Extrordinaire. K got his face painted:

 

 

 Whilst C tested his strength...

 

 ...and went on the 'Rowdy ride'.

 

K met up with his new friend A and they spent a happy few hours running about. 

 

 Fresh handmade pizza from the pizza oven

 

Capoeira

 

 Indian dance performance

 

 Tightrope walking

Climbing at dusk

 

It was a lovely day, bringing together the community and I was even chosen to help judge the junior  cake competition (was a very yummy job).

 

Next up it was New Years Eve, we went to a fancy restaurant in Pondy called Rendezvous for dinner, then came back to AV and went to a lovely chilled party for a few hours before getting K home to bed at 11ish (bit late but it was a special occasion). Then me and C climbed onto our roof and saw in the new year under the stars with fireworks going off in the distance around us, lovely.

 

All in all a very busy couple of weeks, especially with K being off school and us still working. He's goes back tomorrow and we can get back into some kind of rhythm. The Tamil harvest festival of Pongal is coming in a couple of weeks so it will get busy at my work as the major Hindu holidays warrant a new set of clothes for all the family.

 

Wishing you all a happy new 2014.

 

Laura xx