Pour Tous Distribution Centre (PTDC)

How an Israeli top lawyer joins Auroville to become a sound healer.

Donald “Don” Kelman (91) passed away on 30 January 2025 at his home in the Prarthana Community in Auroville. He had valiantly fought dementia for several years with the support of his loved ones and a community of dear friends.

In the beginning of May, the Auroville farmers published a report in the community edition of the Auroville News and Notes questioning the results of the imposition of the fruit harvest auction by the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO).

Lorraine passed away on March 25th, at the age of 76 at Mahalakshmi home where she had been living for the last years. Lorraine hailed from the United States, where she had worked as a nurse.

Aurovilian A. Jothi passed away at JIPMER hospital on May 28th due to COVID. Jothi joined Auroville in 2005 after marrying Ganesh. A happy spirit, she worked at Farm Fresh for five years, then at PTDC for five years, where she was known as “one of the sweetest people we have ever met,” and for the past one and a half years at Sunship.

Zero waste is the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of all products, packaging, and materials, without burning them, and without discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.

In ‘normal’ times, Aurovilians have a great deal of choice when it comes to dining in cafes and restaurants, or buying groceries to cook at home.

Recently, Suryamayi Clarence-Smith, who was born and brought up in Auroville, completed a Ph.D in International Development in the University of Sussex, the world-ranking institution in the field.

Saturdays are usually busy days around Solar Kitchen. People are rushing to get their weekend shopping at PTDC, or a quick coffee at La Terrace, or finding a new item at Freestore.

The Solar Kitchen opened in December 1997 and since then has been operating uninterruptedly under different managers. The first were Jaya and Shyama, who were joined shortly after by Andrea.

The City Services Lunch Scheme began more than 10 years ago as a way of enlarging the in-kind maintenance system. It was developed to help those working in the services to supplement the monthly maintenance which was not enough to cover the basic needs of living and working here.

Members of Pour Tous Distribution Centre (PTDC), the Auroville community’s food cooperative, have recently been given a new way to monitor their consumption and develop more sustainable patterns.

Demonetisation – this brittle word with its short, sharp syllables, gained currency overnight with the draconian move of the Indian Government to invalidate Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes.

Recently, a group of Aurovilians concerned about the direction of our economy discussed alternatives. Anandi is part of the management team of Pour Tous Distribution Centre, Jocelyn is on the Santé team, Nicole is a member of the BCC and management of the Visitors Center, Isha coordinates the Auroville Board of Services, and Manohar is the webmaster of the Auroville website.

Mother gave broad and clear directives that form the basis of Auroville’s socio-economic organization and vision: a communal economy with no private property and no exchange of money between community members, each of whom would contribute to the collective in one of three ways – work, kind, or money – and whose basic needs, would, in turn, be provided for by the community.

Food is very much in the news these days. Recently, the Joy of Learning team presented two sessions on farming in Auroville, where the issue of Aurovilians’ food tastes, and how this impacts the farmers by determining what and how much organic food they grow, was an important topic.

Margarita, jointly with Guidelma, runs MG EcoDuties, an activity under Auroville Activities Trusts. MG EcoDuties researches and manufactures All Natural, Biodegradable, Non-Toxic Cleaning and Well Being products that are 100% eco-friendly (“this means truly 100%, and not just a bit,” says Margarita), economical (“especially for Aurovilians who live on a low maintenance”); do not add to the landfills (“as people can fill-up their own bags and bottles”); are not damaging washing machines, fabrics and pipelines or are clogging sceptic tanks; and are beneficial for human health.

Over the past two months, Aurovilians have been invited to participate in a new experiment called The Joy of Learning. What is the idea behind it?

Last summer, Min Ameen and Akshay Poongta made a presentation to the Auroville community on the topic of ‘Social marketing frameworks and its application to waste management in Auroville’.