After Vaitheeswaran Koil, my plan was to head to Sri Lanka. I wanted to stop by this experiment in human unity society/ utopia in a place called Auroville just outside Pondicherry, southeast India.
Ponidcherry was a French colony. Now, being able to digest gluten, I was able to revel in croissants and other French delights🤤. The city was ok. It had a decent beach, but really, it was more of a transition point to Auroville.
Auroville was founded in 1968 by frenchwoman Mirra Alfassa.
Taken from wikipedia:
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The inauguration ceremony attended by delegates of 124 nations was held on Wednesday 28 February 1968. Handwritten in French by Mirra Alfassa, its four-point charter set forth her vision of integral living:
- Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
- Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
- Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring toward future realizations.
- Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.
Alfassa expected that this experimental “universal township” would contribute significantly to the “progress of humanity towards its splendid future by bringing together people of goodwill and aspiration for a better world”.
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The town continues to be inhabited by people from around the world. At the center of the town is the Matrimandir, a giant golden globe with a meditation space in its center.
This place intrigued me when I heard about it months ago in Nepal. It seems to be version of demonstrated enlightened society, a subject worthy of researching, understanding, and manifesting. I’d had experience living in such a community (2017-2019) when I was living at the Shambhala Mountain Center, now Drala Mountian Center, and found the values/ theory to be sound, but the execution was a bit amiss. It is understandable however, the creation of enlightened society, people working for the benefit of others, is a bit complicated.
I was excited to inquire about administration, policy making, trash management, energy needs, property development, and other such relevant questions for creating such an ambitious project. I am personally interesting in creating enlightened society on a small scale via naturally built communities, so when I’d heard it was (potentially) being done on a large scale, I naturally had to see it with my own eyes.
The property is 20 square kilometers. As a visitor, I only had access to about one fourth of the property. I was able to visit the visitor center, the shops/ cafes around it, the walking trail to the Matrimandir, and the Matrimandir viewing point. I was sad that I was only able to get an outsider’s perspective of the property. I think it’s necessary to spell out the boundaries between the residents that live in such a society and people who come to visit. In researching the process for becoming a resident or long term volunteer, it looks like there are agreements needed to be met. I think spelling out such expectations is a vital part of making such an idealistic community functional and even feasible.
Then entire time I was there, I got the sense there was much more to see than where I was allowed to venture. The part I did see was lovely. The walk to the Matrimandir was nice/tranquil with manicured garden areas, art installations, and buildings with interesting/ natural architecture. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enter the Matrimandir. You need at least four days reservation notice, as the hours it is open to outsiders is limited, and there are many visitors who come everyday. The cafes had amazing pastries!
If I’d planned better, I would have opted to do a volunteer stay. I think getting a resident’s perspective would be such a different and rewarding experience. I would love to see their community dynamic. I will put this on my bucket list.
I left Pondicherry (and Auroville) and headed to Chennai, to fly out to Sri Lanka. I didn’t care for Chennai. It was loud and full of people. The hotel I arrived was also somewhat unwelcoming. I booked my ticket to Sri Lanka almost immediately upon arriving at my hotel, deciding the faster I left the city, the better. After booking my plane ticket for the next day, I decided to take a leisurely walk about. I found myself in a place called “Writer’s Cafe”. While there, it hit me, “What are the Sri Lanka visa requirements?” Such relevant travel questions will sometimes inconveniently evade me. In a panic, I started researching and found that you have to get it in advance. The rushed E-visa was more than I wanted to pay for and upon looking at plane tickets from Sri Lanka to Kathmandu, those fare were also higher than what I was expecting/willing to pay.
Sadly, with a broken heart, I cancelled the plane ticket to Sri Lanka I’d just purchased a few hour prior and booked my ticket from Chennai to Kathmandu instead. The flight, which was a 3am flight the next day (just a few hours away), had one stop over. Ironically it was in Sri Lanka.
I arrived in Sri Lanka and thought I would make use of my four hour lay over to try to extend my lay over by a few days. By the way, the Sri Lanka Air flight was great, on par with Qatar and Singapore Airlines. It just puts US (and European) airlines to shame.
I went to the Sri Lanka Air transit counter desk to try to get some help. Their customer service left something to be desired. They referred me to my purchasing agent, who referred me to the airline’s reservation center, who referred me to the ticketing center which was in the airport, outside security, which meant I needed a visa to get there. After telling all this to the Sri Lanka Air customer service at the transit counter, they referred me to the visa counter. But I didn’t want/ need a visa just yet, I just needed to talk with the ticketing department to inquire about possible lay over delays and pricing. The visa counter referred me to the visa special accommodation’s office.
It turned out I didn’t need a visa prior to arrival. I could just get it on arrival. I had visited an annoying non government website the day before, that looked official, but was actually this kind of middle man visa purchasing agent. These kinds of websites are rampant when looking for visas in this area of the world. Sooo annoying.
After explaining the story to the special accommodations visa officer, he said if I could get an escort from the Sri Lanka Air customer service transit desk, he would allow me to leave and enter back into the secured airport area, without a visa, to make my inquiry. I returned to the Sri Lanka Air customer service transit desk, explained my updated situation, and asked for an escort to the their ticketing counter. Their reply was, “We don’t do that.”
There were three employees on their phones doing nothing, with no other customers around!!!
I asked one more time, got the same response, smiled and left, shocked, distraught, and watching the quality of my disturbed/ irate brain/mind.
My mind went to a familiar place of toggling between two places of “I should have tried harder/ longer” and “Just let it go”. Eventually I went with the latter and ended up in Kathmandu a few hours later.
C’est la vie.
bodymovin.net 