Future World or is it..

We are still in India here 2016 - albeit on the latter stages - five airports , eight hotels rooms later and further South than before on the East coast but it's not where we were meant to be - in our original plans we should have been. The highlight of the tour really for both of us and that's in no way detracting from the excitement of different regions and even a different country was the Andaman Islands a little known 'part' of India which is only 100 km from Indonesia, Travel books do not exist aside from a 2-3 pages supplement slipped into the back of a 400 page book as an afterthought but I'd done my homework but still had concerns , logistically it was a challenge so even more reason to go for it!.

As previously mentioned I sought advice from my Bangalore chums and eventually found someone who had been, it would involve some serious juggling between flights, mainline hotels, local/cargo ferries and island hotels - better than the slow boat from Kolkata which takes four days! I had left this bit of the tour until last to organise, still concerned about the weather being more 'liquid sunshine' i.e. heavy rain than the tropical paradise (the islands are green for a reason)

We were all sorted , must have been in excess of 40 emails four hotels and five boats for a six night stay sounding the we needed a Partridge in a Papaya tree! We had nice day again yesterday and we'd come to a stage when you are ready to move on, I had been keeping an eye on local events and weather but not to the point where we heard 800-1400 tourists stuck awaiting Navy evacuation - didn't bode well and the mail from the Local Manager basically said it's not very good.

So as with all tricky decision we went round in circles and did what us Brit's always do , we slept on it but without further ado here , in the words of Basil Fawlty - 'It's Off'

So let's get positive and talk about something a little more calm - Auroville.

Imagine a place where there is no money ), a place where the purpose is to realise human unity – in diversity. A place where the aim is an ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness - and practically researching into - sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.

Wow any second now Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise will appear with that 'we need to save this planet of ours' troubled look!

Well here is Auroville from the French language, "aurore" meaning dawn and "ville" meaning city, about 10km outside of our semi-enforced house arrest in Pundicherry, its been going since 1968 and has residents from 120+ nations with 70% being made up of Indian/French/German.

I cannot begin to really describe in detail about each zone but to me it seems to resemble the ill-fated Futureworld film in which people lived the perfect life until it all went horribly wrong (well there would be no real story if it ended happy!)

To give you more background

What is Auroville?

Auroville is a universal township in the making for a population of up to 50,000 people from around the world.

How did Auroville begin?

The concept of Auroville - an ideal township devoted to an experiment in human unity - came to the Mother as early as the 1930s.

Why Auroville?

The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity – in diversity. Today Auroville is recognised as the first and only internationally endorsed ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness, also concerned with - and practically researching into - sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.

When did Auroville start?

On 28th February 1968 some 5,000 people assembled near the banyan tree at the centre of the future township for an inauguration ceremony attended by representatives of 124 nations, including all the States of India.

This was all a bit too much for me I needed something a bit more broken and less peacful so with that in mind I left my wife here for a while (only the day but suspect we would have liked a lot longer) and I decide it's time for a bit of scooter time and see what places I really shouldn't visit, the abandoned Lighthouse next door is still on the cards but need army/police presence to reduce before i try and get into that. Bingo , the main railway station which typically gets two trains a day , it's very quiet and there is a single carriage on the platform but it's heavily guarded by at least three of the stray dogs and too much access needed on foot , so a couple of pics then trace one of the branch lines away from the station by riding along the tracks.

Track gets more overgrown , so it's abandon Scooter, then on foot , in my haste I'd made a schoolboy error for the expected - I've gone as far as I can get before needing to make a quick exit, and left the bike the wrong way around!. The line which hasn't seen any trains for some years ends up with a house/hut across the tracks at which point I get a feeling I am no longer alone with a cocktail of dogs and local people and no doubts some other stuff in the undergrowth all wondering really what I am doing, so it's a token wave and an about turn before walking as quick as possible jumping on the bike and doing a doughnut ring turn to make a swift exit before hitting the relative safety of a minor road!.

A very contrasting day with two very different worlds 15 miles apart.