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Communities in alphabetic order
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Buddha Garden
(updated April 2009)
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Housing
& Communities |
| Name of the community: |
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Buddha Garden Community farm |
| Address : |
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605101 Auroville, Tamil Nadu |
| Geographical outlook : |
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The community was founded in 2000 and is situated in the Green belt.
The area consists of 12 acres of land, with 3 buildings plus capsules |
| Present number of members: |
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Aurovilians: 1
(There are 8 local apprentices attached to the farm).Other regular guests/members:whoever turns up to work |
| Nationalities : |
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1 British |
| Languages spoken : |
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English, Tamil. |
| Characteristics of the community : |
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A place where we work (hopefully consciously) together to grow organic food for the community of Auroville.
For more details and pictures go to www.buddhagarden.org |
| Regular group activities and happenings: |
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Work every morning Monday to Friday from dawn until it gets hot. At present 6.15- 9.00am but this varies during the year so check first if you want to come and join in |
| Community living: |
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There is a community kitchen for guests. |
| Open to guests: |
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Guests very welcome to come and work – just turn up. Minimum stay of two weeks for those who would like to do so. |
| Long-term aims of the community : |
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To grow organic food consciously for Auroville and in doing so learn about our own evolution. I dream that a real community of several committed people might one day come to live and work in Buddha Garden. |
| Tasks
of the members inside the community : |
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Farm work of all sorts |
How do members participate
in the life of Auroville; |
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Work and any other way they feel to get involved |
| Contact person: |
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Priya Vincent
Phone nr:
94432 22653
priya@auroville.org.in |
Download the Information for volunteers
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Center guesthouse
(Centre Field)
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Center
guesthouse |
| Number
of houses : |
14
houses |
| Number
of people : |
3
Aurovilians, 12 employees |
| Date
of creation : |
Late
70's |
| Guest
houses : |
centerguesthouse@auroville.org.in |
More details :
 The
Center Guesthouse is not really a community: it's
one of Auroville's most popular guesthouses. It's
located in the centre of Auroville, at a walking
distance from the Matrimandir. We provide a 'homely'
atmosphere under a large banyan tree. Most of the
rooms are quite simple, with common bathroom. We
have 3 rooms with bathroom attached, one with A/C.
Prices range from Rs.300 to
Rs. 550 per person per day (exclusive A/C), which
includes 3 meals, laundry and cycle rental. Mopeds
can be hired from us for an additional charge.
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Certitude
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Certitude |
| Number
of houses : |
25
houses |
| Number
of people : |
40
(34 adults, 6 children) |
| Number
of nationalities : |
10 |
| Number
of wells : |
2 |
| Date
of creation : |
1970
onwards |
| Guesthouse
: |
N/A |
More details :
 Originally
known in the 1970s as 'Auroson's Home', the community
(located entirely in the GreenBelt, south-south-east
of the Matrimandir) was renamed in 1978 to avoid
the confusion between the house/building of 'Auroson's
Home' (one of the first buildings in Auroville,
certainly the first in the area) and the rest of
the community. The inspiration for the name came
from a photo of the Mother illustrating that particular
state of being. It seemed appropriate for a community
which had by then established its permanency, with
proper houses as opposed to the keet structures
which were still then being put up in other parts
of Auroville, and was now feeling 'certain' of itself
and its future as a residential site within the
greater community. (At one point it got the nickname
'Seven Fridges' at a time when there was a well-known
GreenBelt area known as Seven Banyans!)
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Creativity
(updated January 2008)
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Housing
& Communities |
| Name of the community: |
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Creativity |
| Address : |
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605101 Auroville, Tamil Nadu |
| Geographical outlook : |
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Founded in August 2001, on 2 acres of land in the residential zone.
The 1715 sq.m building comprises of five blocks that average five apartments; plus common office, arts atelier, activities hall, library, computer room, kitchen and laundromat. |
| Present number of members: |
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Aurovilians: ca. 24
Children: 3
Newcomers: ca 5
And 7 guests during the season. |
| Nationalities : |
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Liable to change:
7 residents from India,
5 residents from Germany,
3 residents from the USA,
1 resident from Holland,
6 residents from Italy,
1 resident from Bolivia,
1 resident from France,
1 resident from Australia,
3 resident from Spain,
1 resident from Canada,
1 resident from Ukraine
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| Languages spoken : |
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See above |
| Characteristics of the community : |
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Creativity is an Auroville microcosm for people from various cultures, who are willing to live with common means and trust in each other; they are of various ages, singles or couples, and children.
Residents agreed to a charter about no personal ownership of spaces, combined with a willingness to share and to aim for intercultural harmony.
The whole building (but for laundry) was wired for future solar current. The community maintains a waste water treatment plant and has an ecological attitude towards the use of water. The treatment plant generates water for irrigation.
Household waste is separated and organic material is used in compost for plants in and around the community.
As of December 2007, Creativity resident meetings draw more than half of all. |
| Regular group activities and happenings: |
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Meetings and regular community dinners. |
| Community living: |
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More than half of the residents are involved in running the community on a daily basis; with the aid of a small team of shared workers. |
| Common infrastructure: |
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Wireless, waste water treatment. |
| Open to guests: |
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All facilities and activities, except residents meetings. |
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| Long-term aims of the community : |
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Fulfilling Mother's ideas on living in Auroville. |
| Tasks
of the members inside the community : |
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Wastewater treatment, accounts, gardening, guesthouse, computers, supervising workers, mail collection, building maintenance, drink-water checks, wireless network, electricity, organizing meetings, common email, cooking schedules. |
How do members participate
in the life of Auroville; |
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Most have full time Auroville jobs, some work voluntarily in Creativity or in AV at large. |
| Contact person: |
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Contact secretary:
creativity@auroville.org.in |
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Dana
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Dana |
| Number
of houses : |
12
houses and 2 newcomer houses |
| Number
of people : |
27
adults and 10 children |
| Date
of creation : |
1982 |
| Guesthouse
: |
N/A |
| E-mail
contact : |
claude@auroville.org.in |
More details :
 Dana
means 'gift' in Sanskrit. This community, at the
very entrance of the Cultural Zone, was started
by some members of a theatre troupe who used to
perform and live in Auroville. By now, most of them
have left.
Dana is worth visiting for its pottery (there are
three of them now), still using manual techniques
and wood fire.
Just behind the residential part of Dana, on one
side the Greenbelt starts and on the other side
a large, new sports complex is coming up, where
all children from Transition School have their daily
sports activities at 4 pm. This makes the place
lively and a bit noisy till 6 pm, after which the
community returns to its original peace.
The houses in Dana are very different from each
other since most of the people who built there were
artists and had their own ideas on what they wanted.
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Discipline
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Discipline |
| Number
of houses : |
3
houses |
| Number
of people : |
5
adults |
| Date
of creation : |
1968 |
| Guesthouse
: |
Yes |
| E-mail
contact : |
meike@auroville.org.in |
More details :
 Since
the beginning of 1994 Jeff (Australian) has been running
Discipline farm (begun by the residents around 1968
with intensive soil-building input), which is situated
near the village Alankuppan, on the northern edge of
the Greenbelt. The farm consists of 34 acres of land;
1-2 acres irrigated crops such as fruits (coconut, banana,
guava, chikoo and citrus), cow fodder and vegetables,
all linked to an extensive drip system and solar pump
set, and 5 1/2 acres of dryland, mainly mangos. The
rest is forested. There is a dairy of 8 cows, 4 heifers
and a small poultry. The farm annually grows monsoon-fed
red rice, and occasionally other field crops like millets
and sesame. They are gradually increasing the number
of fruit tree varieties. The community has begun using
a biogas converter, donated by CSR, for its cooking
fuel needs. Accommodation for farm volunteers is sometimes
available.
Not all people living in Discipline take care of the
farm. Some have a very different work in other areas
of Auroville.
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Djaima
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Djaima |
| Number
of houses : |
12
houses and a big newcomer complex (17 apartments) |
| Number
of people : |
20
adults and 5 children |
| Date
of creation : |
1978 |
| Guesthouse
: |
N/A |
| E-mail
contact : |
sidusha@auroville.org.in |
More details:
The place started with 16
acres of land meant for an experiment on ecological
farming. Until recently this was quite a success,
but nowadays none of its residents is into farming.
Little by little, the horses, the cows, the chickens,
all that made this place a farm, disappeared.
Djaima, which has very good topsoil, still has a
great fruit garden (mango trees, papaya, ramfall,
sitafall, orange, guava trees) and some vegetables.
They have a solar panel powered pump set on their
bore well, with an electric generator as a backup.
The project is not self-supporting at this time
but Kumar would like to extend the operation with
more cows and more intensive cultivation of the
land.
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Douceur
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Douceur |
| Number
of houses : |
7
houses |
| Number
of people : |
12
adults and 6 children |
| Date
of creation : |
1970 |
| Guesthouse
: |
N/A |
| E-mail
contact : |
N/A |
More details :
Douceur is essentially a
residential community with self-contained houses.
The well known and much appreciated Auroville Bakery
is located in this settlement as well.
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Existence
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Existence |
| Number
of houses : |
2 |
| Number
of people : |
4 |
| Date
of creation : |
1978 |
| Guesthouse
: |
No |
| E-mail
contact : |
No |
More details:
The people living here are
Ana from Spain and her 2 daughters. Ana is an artist
(photos and drawings; and Matriprasad (from France)
is involved in
Greenwork.
We lead a simple life, practice sadhana, refrain
from publicity, and hope you can respect this.
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Felicity
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Felicity |
| Number
of houses : |
5
houses (2 guesthouse, 1 newcomer unit) |
| Number
of people : |
2
adults |
| Date
of creation : |
1990 |
| Guesthouse
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3
houses which can host about 8 guests |
| E-mail
contact : |
N/A |
More details:
 Felicity
consists of 5 plots with private houses. They share
the water-well.
Only two of the houses are occupied by Aurovilian
residents, one house is designated for newcomers,
and the others are kept for regular guests.
Juanita from USA takes care of the main guesthouse,
and Franco (Italy) has also a small guesthouse on
his plot.
The place is very elegant
and beautiful, and there are fruit trees all over
the place. Juanita loves her little farm and grows
vegetables and salads which she happily shares with
Auroville.
Each guesthouse has its
own fully equipped kitchen and bathroom. Laundry
facilities are available.
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Fertile Forest
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Housing
& Communities
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| Community
name : |
Fertile
Forest |
| Number
of houses : |
one
house and one "treatment house" |
| Number
of people : |
one |
| Date
the community started : |
end
of the seventies |
| Guesthouse
: |
longtime guest only. |
| E-mail
contact : |
turiya@auroville.org.in |
More details :
This community started as
a field of local crops on which an Aurovilian family
came to live. It is at the edge of the forest.
There are no common facilities. The pucca guesthouse, now guesting a Newcomer,
has a bathroom, a well-equipped kitchen, two bedrooms,
each with two beds, and a covered and close verandah.
There is a shed for the vehicles.
It runs on solar energy only, and there is a large
rainwater collection tank, which is to be emptied
with a solar pump. However, the solar power is not
always enough for the houses and the solar pump.
The 'treatment house' is a small house for massage
therapy.
There is a small fruit garden, and many trees and
shrubs have been planted. Languages spoken are French, English, Spanish, and Italian. |
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Fertile Windmill
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Housing
& Communities
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| Community
name : |
Fertile
Windmill |
| Number
of houses : |
Twelve,
including guesthouses |
| Number
of people : |
permanent
six |
| Date
the community started : |
1971 |
| Guesthouse
: |
Yes,
seven with bedding for twelve people |
| E-mail
contact : |
vijay@auroville.org.in |
More details :
We have a common kitchen.
It is used only for the guests when we have any,
and to make the tea for the workers. We have two
sets of solar panels, now a bit old and not in very
good condition. If I use their electricity for the
computer nobody else has any electricity at night,
so I am forced to charge some batteries with a noisy
generator to be able to use the computer. We have
hundreds of fruit trees, mainly mangoes and guavas.
However, as the land was pretty dead and without
any topsoil when I first came, and because the water
level is very low, we don't get all that many fruits.
We have just come to see the trees as forest trees,
which also give us occasionally some fruits..
For guests we have two capsules
(bamboo-thatch structures) for 150 rupees a day,
and ferrocement domes for Rs 200 - 250, including
three meals a day.
Basically, the Fertile Windmill
settlement passed through several stages:
1971 to the end of 1974 - pioneer stage - Mother
sends names to plant trees - I lived in a 200 rupees
capsule and walked every day to the neighbouring
Fertile community to get a pot of water until the
Windmill came up. Began joyfully planting a zillion
trees.
End 1974 to middle of '76 - I go to Australia to
make some money to plant more trees.
Middle 1976 to about 1983 - I came back from Australia
with Dee (now Bhavana) and Ann, more and more tree
planting, fencing and bunding the land, up to close
to the Matrimandir and to Kottakarai, anti-erosion
and water conservation works.
1983 up to 1997 - starting the gemstones and jewellery
unit to support Fertile Windmill. Various people
came to stay declaring their intention to help.
Two are still here. We have learned to be careful
to whom to open the door, and hope that, one day,
the right people will come. Work consists mostly
of earning the money to support the forest and the
community.
1997 - The direction is now to make here a Healing
centre, and, once another way is found to support
the forest and the community, to gradually altogether
abandon the commercial activity.
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Fraternity
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Fraternity |
| Number
of houses : |
13
houses and 1 guesthouse |
| Number
of people : |
19
adults |
| Date
of creation : |
1980 |
| Guesthouse
: |
1 small house with 2 beds |
| E-mail
contact : |
N/A |
More details:
Situated close to Kuilapalayam
(a large village in Auroville's bioregion), the
purpose of this community was to be a centre for
the villages' development (training, employment,
education), to be instrumental towards improvement
in nutrition, hygiene and standard of living.
It now has become an industrial settlement where
several handicraft units (garnments, hand made
paper, printing…) are settled. The community has
a residential part and a part for the working spaces.
Behind the working area is the Youth Camp which is a guest house for low/middle budget.
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Gaia
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Gaia |
| Number
of houses : |
8
houses |
| Number
of people : |
10
adults and 14 children |
| Date
of creation : |
In
the 70's |
| Guesthouse
: |
No |
| E-mail
contact : |
N/A |
More details :
Located close to the Matrimandir,
Gaia was started as a semi-greenbelt settlement
with the aim to regenerate the land and develop
the Mahakali Park. The houses are spaced at least
50 m. apart and there is little communal activity.
Members of Gaia essentially act as good neighbours,
each doing their own thing in the context of Auroville
as they see it!
Gaia uses alternative energy systems, -wind for
pumping the water and solar for supplying electricity.
Now and then, a dissident member grumbles that life
would be easier with electricity from the grid,
but so far this movement has not found much support.
It is to be expected however that the concept of
Gaia as a community is likely to change given the
current development of the Cultural Zone and the
Residential Zone which lie on either side of it.
This of course is true for any community that started
as an isolated entity but is now about to be 'engulfed'
by Auroville's growth.
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Gaia's garden
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
Gaia's
garden |
| Number
of houses : |
3
houses |
| Number
of people : |
5
adults |
| Date
of creation : |
End
of 1998 |
| Guesthouse
: |
7
units that can host about 10 guests |
| E-mail
contact : |
N/A |
More details :
Gaia's Garden is an ecological
settlement. They take great care of the gardens
and have many plants, and use solar power as well
as conventional power supply. It has one big guesthouse
mainly for long-term guest or newcomers.
Guests can share the community kitchen and dining
room, but have to arrange for the food supply and
preparation themselves. There is space for about
10 persons. All the rooms have a private shower
and bathroom. Prices go from 120 to 500 rupees a
day, depending on the unit.
Besides the guesthouse,
there are two private houses. Some three years ago
we separated from Auromodele because we felt that
we had nothing in common with the residents there,
although our houses have the same kind of structure.
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Grace
(updated 20.01.2008)
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Housing
& Communities
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| Name
of the community : |
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Grace |
| Address : |
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Auroville, 605101 Tamil Nadu |
| Date of creation : |
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1978 |
| Geographical outlook : |
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The area is situated in the Residential Zone, and it consists of
5 acres of land and of 27 buildings (25 residences, including 2 newcomer units, + Garage + waste disposal ) |
| Present number of members : |
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Aurovilians 39 (including 7 children and 3 young people).
Children 7. Young people 4.
Newcomers 4 (including 2 youths)
Other regular members 3 (including 1 young person) (Resident worker family)
Total number of residents (as of 20.1.08): 47
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| Nationalities : |
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Australian 1
British 3
Canadian 2
French 5
German 6
Indian 14
Italian 8
Korean 3
Netherlands 1
Russian 1
Spanish 1
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| Languages spoken : |
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See above; ‘Indian' includes at least Hindi and Tamil, maybe more ... |
| Characteristics of the community : |
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Residential area for people who are working for Auroville |
| Regular group activities and happenings : |
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None - occasional residents' meetings |
| Guesthouse : |
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No Guest facilities |
| Community living : |
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Residents cooperate in various ways to maintain the shared environment and a harmonious atmosphere within the settlement |
| Common infrastructure : |
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Fenced compound;
Well, pumps, underground and overhead water-tanks;
Waste-water treatment plant;
Composting area;
Outdoor laundry area;
Garage with mail-box;
Waste-disposal area;
Central park with badminton court |
Tasks of the members inside the community : |
|
Maintenance of common
infrastructure:
(supervision of community worker(s);
maintenance of water-supply,
waste-water treatment, composting, solid waste disposal, collection of mail, harvesting and distribution of fruits ...)
Maintenance of the shared account |
How do members participate in the life of Auroville : |
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All Grace residents are working in one group or another for the development of Auroville - apart from the children and young people who are getting educated, and the resident worker, who helps maintain the settlement itself. |
| Contact : |
|
Shraddhavan
Tf. 262 2149
savitribhavan@auroville.org.in
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More details :
Grace is located in the
residential zone and is more a 'neighbourhood' than
a community. The people living here all like and
appreciate each other, but don't do very many things
together, each having his/her own field of activity
(architecture, teaching, musicians, translators,
painters, working at Matrimandir etc..). Whenever
a policy decision needs to be taken, or some problem
needs to be solved, we have a community meeting
in one of our houses or out in the open, some 4,
5 times a year. A large water recycling plant is
functioning perfectly and one house is entirely
solar empowered.
At the entrance of Grace there lives a Tamil family
who are our friends of many, many years.
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