Issue Nº350 – In Memoriam

Murugan Adhimoolam left his body on August 11th at the age of 43. Hailing from Kottakarai, Murugan joined Auroville in 2007 and has been working with Michel in Dana’s Flame Pottery. He lived with his wife Meena (who does the catering for Transition School) and their two children Adhavan, at college in Chennai, and Arthi studying in Pondy.

Apart from his work at the pottery, Aurovilians experienced Murugan’s calm and friendly presence at various occasions, such as at Matrimandir duty, the organisation of the Marathons, Sangamam festivities and other such events. He also helped Celestine with her art work on Auroville’s roads.

Murugan’s remains were buried at Adventure’s burial grounds on August 12th.

On September 1st, young Thupten Landhen suffered a road accident near Pitchandikulam at 1am in the morning in heavy rain. He was 24 years old.

Thupten lived for 12 years with his sister, Aurovilian Dorjee in Douceur, and helped her out in the Bakery and in their Lhasa restaurant. The last two years he has been studying in Future School as well.

He was known as a very amiable, easy going person, always willing to help out, be it by making photos on special occasions, making folks familiar with their mobile phones etc. His love and skill for photography was apparent.

Before Dorjee took Thupten’s body to their hometown Bailakupe near Mysore, it was displayed for one hour for a last goodbye at the Farewell centre. The huge number of shocked and grieving students and friends who attended bore testimony of how much this young man was appreciated and loved.

On 14 August our long-term Dutch friend and brother Pieter van der Molen (‘Big Piet’) passed away at the age of 75 in his home in Holland.

Pieter, who in the sixties was the top judo trainee of the then world champion judo Anton Geesink, had during a judo demonstration session a profound inner experience which left him in shock and in search for answers. Finding a work by Sri Aurobindo, and hearing about Auroville, he completely changed his life and came to Auroville in 1970.

Starting out in Aspiration, from where he transported goods and people to and from Pondy, he soon moved to Kottakarai where he started a fruit orchard, ‘Angiras Garden’, along with Judith. The couple had three children, Angiras, Bhima and Aurama. At the time Piet started working with villagers, making leather bags.

In the eighties, Piet managed Abri workshop, repairing water pumps and motorcycles, and moved to Centre Field where he made paper lanterns with young villagers. His passion for the increasing birdlife in Auroville was remarkable; he painstakingly documented the growth of the handful of bird species in the early days into the 100+ different varieties of now and was often in contact with Salim Ali about the same.

Piet left Auroville in 1989, but has always kept contact with Auroville and a deep connection with Mother and Sri Aurobindo. He will be missed by his children Emanuel, Angiras, Bhima and Aurama and his grandchildren with whom he developed a close contact, as well as by his close family in Auroville, Holland, Canada and Sweden.

Nergez H. Pesikaka peacefully left this world at the age of 97 on Wednesday August 22 in her flat in the Creativity settlement of Auroville. According to her wish, her mortal remains were buried in Auroville’s ‘Adventure’ farewell ground the following afternoon, in the presence of her grandniece Ms. Parisad and a large group of Aurovilian friends who had gathered to say their last goodbyes.

Dr. Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a giant of Tamil Nadu politics who served five terms as Chief Minister and was the long-term President of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), died on 7th August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. He was 94 years old.