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Earthquake in India
Vanakam everyone.
I have been intending to write a long lovely message about my adventures and
learning experiences in India and in Auroville over the past month, but the
past few days find us here with different things on our minds. You have
probably heard that there was a large and extremely devastating earthquake
in Gujarat, one thousand kilometers from where we are in Tamil Nadu, on
India's Republic Day this past Friday. We felt the earthquake here, but
there were no damages. However, the fact that we could physically feel this
event has made us feel very connected to the event. It has been an
emotional few days as we ask ourselves what our responsibility and capacity
is to help, as American students who espouse ideas of international social
responsibility. There has been talk in our group about getting on one of
the free relief trains that are running from here to Ahmedabad in order to
volunteer our services, but we ask ourselves, what would we do when we got
there? Are we really equipped or prepared to help in that way? Are we
really prepared to go without food or clean water, and expose ourselves to
incredibly harsh conditions and health hazards to pull bodies out from under
blocks of concrete? We are trying to find ways in which we can be of help.
There are many relief organizations that are mobilizing support and
resources to aid the victims of the earthquake, and it may be through them
that we are able to do the most good. However, I will take this opportunity
to just give all of you a chance to consider how you are connected to this
event on the other side of the world. One of the really challenging things
for us has been that we always here about these cataclysmic events and they
seem so far away.it is hard to imagine that they happen in the same world
that we live in. Several of you emailed me to see if we were alive, if we
were affected. Although Gujarat is on the other side of the country from
us, it is essentially in our backyard. I mean, we FELT IT HAPPEN. The same
movement that caused huge apartment complexes to topple shook our bodies as
we sat in our classroom. People who we know here have family in that area,
and their status is unknown as electricity and phone lines are down. It is a
very visceral connection for a change, and this is playing a huge role in
our desire to do something to help. We still don't know what to do, but we
have some ideas.
Ironically this comes at a time when I have been reflecting on how isolated
I have been feeling from the rest of India while I have been in Auroville.
For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me tell you a
little about where I am and what I am doing here. Auroville is an
international intentional community in South India which was founded on the
philosophies of two spiritual teachers in the late '60s. It serves as "an
experiment in human unity," which means that it is like a petri dish in
which social experiments take place.wait, that sounds kind of bizarre..let
me start over. Auroville is a place in which there are people living from
many different backgrounds trying to live cooperatively and sustainably, and
while it is no utopia, it provides many of the same social problems that
occur in the rest of the world, but on a scale that is manageable enough to
allow people to come up with creative and innovative ideas to address them.
It is really an amazing place, a huge beautiful forest that has been planted
entirely in the last 30 years, beautiful living spaces that are very
expressive of the people who inhabit them, interesting technological
developments in energy and building, a number of schools that approach
education in unconventional ways, not to mention French bakeries and a
cheese factory (luckily I ride my bicycle to get anywhere, which is usually
pretty far) . the list of amazing things and people here goes on and on.
Did I mention that it's on the beach? As you might have guessed, I am pretty
happy not to be in Seattle in the winter!
Back to serious issues, though . I must say that being here I feel like I am
on an island in a sea of craziness in the rest of India.earthquakes in
Gujarat, millions upon millions of pilgrims trying to stop their cycle of
rebirth by bathing in the holy rivers at the Kumbha Mela in Allahabad,
terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.and I am playing with village kids in
the primary school where I am working in the morning, reading my books,
going to my classes, practicing yoga, dodging cows and buses on the road.in
some strange way I feel disconnected from the country which is
geographically all around this international zone. I had wondered when I
set out to come to this intentional community if I would feel isolated from
the rest of the world. Being here I feel that on a certain level but I have
also been very impressed by the degree to which Auroville is in dialogue
with the rest of the world. When I need to feel like I'm in India, I go to
Pondicherry, about 10 kms away, for a little culture shock. It's an odd
contradiction, but this place is full of odd contradictions, so I'll leave
it at that. All in all, our program is going really well, we have an
amazing group of students and teachers here (our classes are on intentional
community and utopia, and nature, spirit, and social theory), and Auroville
really lives up to its designation as a place of endless learning.
To go back to pre-Auroville time, let me wish you all a Happy New Year!
Better late than never, right? I hope that you all celebrated in style. We
spent New Year's in Goa, taking a vacation from our vacation. It really
feels like another country there. Goa was a Portugese colony until the
1950s, but unlike many of their colonizing counterparts, the Portugese
assimilated quite a lot into the local culture. What is there now is a
really fascinating mix of Indian and Southern European cultures, peoples,
food, and religions. Goa is very much like paradise, beautiful beaches, lush
vegetation, a lot of great characters. we had a great time, made better by
the fact that we got to dance to the sounds of Talvin Singh (one of my
favorite musicians) under the stars to ring in 2001.
I'll stop there with the tales of world-hopping.that is how I have literally
been thinking of it. Hopping from world to world to world, all in the same
big crazy ocean.the challenge is to connect them all. I am trying to keep
myself in that state of perpetual openness that traveling evokes, and that
makes me feel alive, and like a part of all of the worlds of the world.
Much love to all of you, and thanks so much to those of you who have sent me
wonderful emails back.I wish I had the time to write to everyone
individually but you know how it goes.know that I am thinking of you.
*Sabrina
ps.Look for an email from me in the near future about contributing to
earthquake relief efforts.
Oh, and one more thing.if you want to know more about Auroville, you can
look them up at www.auroville.org
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