Friday we went on a field trip to Auroville. Auroville is an experimental village located 10km from Pondicherry. The village was founded in 1968 by ‘the mother’ and was envisioned as a universal town where men and women of different backgrounds and cultures could live together in peace and harmony. For us peace and conflict students the trip to Auroville presented an interesting look into an alternative way to create a peaceful society.

We arrived in Auroville early in the morning and was met by our guide, Lisa, who gave us a short introduction to Auroville – the history, the vision and so on. After this, we drove to the Matrimandir, which is a golden, dome-shaped temple placed in the center of the town. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to go inside the Matrimandir since it’s perceived as a place of great spiritual importance. To go inside you need to make a personal appointment in advance, we were told. From the Matrimandir we drove to ‘Discipline Farm’ – an organic, sustainable farm also located in Auroville. Here, a German guy (Auroville is a very multi-cultural, multi-national town) showed us around and told us about the different crops and techniques they used at the farm. When he finished I think we were all very relieved because it was in the middle of the day and the sun was burning. We hurried to the next stop: the communal kitchen where we had a nice meal of organic food. In the kitchen they keep track on how much food they throw away every day to bring awareness to and ultimately reduce food waste so we felt the pressure to eat everything on our plates. After the meal the trip was coming to an end, and with full stomachs and happy faces we got into the non-air-conditioned, non-shock-absorbing bus and drove back to Pondy.