Auroville

Auroville

After Chennai and Mahabalipuram, we have been to Auroville. Auroville, a couple of kms away from Pondicherry (Puducherry –most of the cities have two names as before and after independence-), is an alternative living project, open to everybody all around the world, which is founded by The Mother (Mirra Alfassa) and following her principles. Like anybody else, who visits Auroville for the first time, we go to Visitor’s Centre first. Our exploration begins after settling in one of the guesthouses of Auroville. Population of Auroville, which is designed for 50.000 people to live in a self-sustainable way, is about 2500 at present. Because of that, settlements are dispersed and far from each other, also not completely self-sustainable yet. Both visitors and residents are riding motorbikes in Auroville, but we prefer to rent a bicycle. At the center of the settlement, there is Matrimandir, the symbol of Auroville. To enter the building, which is designed like a huge globe, reservation is needed. It is all white inside, as it’s mostly made by using marble, and white socks are given to the visitors. At the center of the globe, meditation room stands. In the middle of the room, there is a small glass globe, in which the vision of the sky is reflected by the optical mirrors at the top of the building. For the landscape of the garden of Matrimandir, a lot of work has done. At the center of the garden, a huge and old banyan tree exists. For us, it’s enough for meditation and simpler. Town Hall, the governing center of Auroville, and Solar Kitchen, where the community...
The Travellers Who Sold Their Caravan

The Travellers Who Sold Their Caravan

Up to now, we made more than 10.000 kilometers on our journey we started 6 months ago. We have been in 20 different cities, visited 10 farms and eco-villages, and camped in more than 40 different places. We met many nice people… Sometimes we stuck on the road, had some trouble. But we didn’t regret even just for one day… Throughout this time, we have written 18 blogs and shared more than 300 photographs. Now, our journey will continue abroad, in South Asia. But, we will be travelling without our fellow, Murtaza. We leave our caravan who took us everywhere and carried all our load. Both because of the length of road lying before us, and because of the extra fund needed for caravan to go out of the country (Vehicle Passport, Traffic Insurance, Carnet de Passages etc.), we are leaving with our backpacks. We won’t be on the same four wheels anymore. But with different kind of transports –by train, by hitchhiking, however we can- we continue exploring different places of Asia to learn about ecologic life and share the seeds in our bags and to share what we learned. On 11 of November, we are going to India (Chennai) from Istanbul by plane. Our journey will start form there, and our first stops will be Sadhana Forest and Auroville. Sadhana Forest is a project for the re-forestration of a land of 70 hectares effected by erosion with locals also to produce food for the people. And Auroville is the largest eco-village or eco-town of the world; population: 2500 approx. We are willing to experience these communities by...