NYT reports on another “self-contained island” in India: Hamilton Court. Although it’s not quite as strange as Auroville, it’s a powerful example of the gulf between the country’s rich and poor. “’Women and children are not encouraged to go outside,’ said Madan Mohan Bhalla, president of the Hamilton Court Resident Welfare Association. ‘If they want to have a walk, they can walk inside. It’s a different world outside the gate.’” More here, “Gurgaon itself is a miserable cancer of construction dust, gleaming shopping malls, and failed infrastructure….The flipside of the equation is this: look how many more people can now afford to live in comfort!”
More on the Indian “utopian community” celebrating its 40th year: The FirstPost has an essay “My bizarre childhood in Auroville”. The writer is not surprised by allegations of sexual abuse of children, but says far more obvious was the parental neglect, “The solidarity among us [children] was part Lord of the Flies, part Jonestown cult.”
“Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.” The BBC on Auroville, the Indian would be yoga-paradise, funded by governments all over the world. The landmark is a the shape of a giant golden golf ball. “It is surrounded by carefully manicured lawns, something of an achievement in arid southern India, and visitors are allowed in only by special appointment.” A resident says, “It’s like being back in the days of the British Raj.” (via.)
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