Nirvana For A Material Girl

One Weary City Slicker Went Off the Grid in Auroville for Two Months, and It Turned Out This Was All the Respite She Needed

- Chandni Doulatramani

The April sky was high and cloudless. It was 44°C and not a blade of grass was moving. But my blithe heart—it was dancing.

In the summer of 2016, I quit my job in Bengaluru, sub-leased my apartment, and with my meagre savings, left for Auroville in Puducherry to volunteer. I managed an arrangement that gave me accommodation in exchange for my services at the Tamarind Bakery and the bountiful cashew farms at the Evergreen Forest Community, a 25-acre stretch in a corner of the township with ambrosial wild berries, organic farms, thoroughbred horses and quaint cottages.

My hosts were Tamar, an inspiring South African woman, Amir, her Israeli husband whom she fell in love with while studying in Jerusalem, and their adorable children, Zohar, Laya, and Sophia. The couple moved here 14 years ago to lead a more nature-friendly life.

Thirteen year-old Zohar did not go anywhere without his book on Auroville’s wildlife. Laya, who was nine, loved to make jewellery out of shells, twigs and beads, and five-year old Sophia, whose favourite word was “buttocks”, had a belly as round and spongy as the carrot cake we baked.

I was put up in a cosy tree house right above the bakery. It included a bamboo shelf, one electric plug point, a fan and a mattress with a mosquito net. This was a huge shift from my spacious one bedroom apartment in Bengaluru, decorated with Led Zeppelin posters, fairy lights and second-hand furniture.

The tree house, with its rickety ladder, was like the bunk bed I always wanted but never had.