Auroville

When was the last time someone didn’t care about who you were but simply welcomed you in their home? When was the last time someone gave you your space in his own physical space? When was the last time someone said, “Tell me more” and got all excited about your new idea? When was the last time someone said everyone is invited and actually meant it? Seed Snehal If you haven’t experienced any of this in a long time, you haven’t met Snehal yet. Snehal is a man who identifies himself with dreams, his or others that’s why he calls his abode – ‘Sapney farm’. A breathing ground for dreams that the world claims it doesn’t need his farm is the oasis of freshness, an asylum to protect the ‘new’, in a world where the usual and the obvious have banished the new and unusual. But of course, I wasn’t aware of this. All I remembered about Snehal was a man who is the owner of the Kofibar in Auroville. There is something unacceptably commercial about ventures claiming to be non-commercial and for the good of all that keeps me away from them therefore, the idea of staying in a commune on a permaculture farm with people from “who knows where” for a week somehow did not appeal to me. We arrived in Auroville after 10 days of Vipassana in Chennai. We headed straight for our favourite glass of cold coffee at Kofi Bar and met with Snehal and his friends there. The evening ran into night and as we returned after a late dinner, it was already pitch dark at the farm. Unable to see a thing, we held each other’s hand and were led to our hut. The two level bamboo hut was a dream come true. It was the first …