Meenakshi

Amudha joined Auroville 43 years ago. She helped start the Kindergarten in 1984 and continues to teach there today. Along with her husband and two sons, she runs Kottakarai Farm and Ganesh Bakery.

From August 2-9, the 7th Auroville Children’s Book Fair was held at Ilaignarkal Education Centre in Auroville. This highly anticipated scholastic event showcases no less than 50,000 books in Tamil and English, specially selected for the young student audience.

Meenakshi, our acclaimed Tamil poet, has just brought out a bi-lingual collection of her poetry to coincide with Auroville’s 50th birthday. Pebble contains one or two poems that have been anthologised elsewhere – like the lovely “I am the golden flame” – but many are new, at least to this reviewer.

Vikas Vickers of AVI UK has selected 50 poems by 21 poets as a gift and tribute to Auroville on its 50th birthday. This collection is the only the second collection of Auroville poetry, and the first in over 30 years.

Sri Aurobindo spoke of free speech as being “an essential requisite for promoting and guarding the true well-being of the people”. The issue of free speech and expression in Auroville has simmered away beneath the surface for many years.

On February 7th, the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ held at the Unity Pavillion was an encouraging success. Organised by the joint land fundraising teams of Acres for Auroville, GreenAcres and LFAU, the event’s central message was the sacredness of the land, and the need for an intense collective effort to acquire land in Auroville’s Master Plan area now.