S & M

This incident happened in my vagabonding days when I was in Auroville staying in a farm. We had to work in the farm for 2 hours every day in exchange of accommodation and breakfast. Sometimes other residents would join us for the mooring work.

During my stay, there were mostly guys on the farm and it was good. We could be ourselves, walk around almost naked in the bare minimum and dispense with politeness. So imagine the chaos when a hot blonde 'un turned up. She always used to wear a long red skirt with purple splotches, tucked high up, when she worked. It looked as if she was wearing a micro mini if anything at all. As far as I know none of the guys was complaining .

God must have spent a disproportionate amount of time on her legs .In case that didn't do the trick, she would often wear a black sleeveless top with a low neck. Ah with colleagues like that you don’t mind working the extra hour! She seemed mildly interested in me for some reason. This was the turning point in our relationship:-

Scene: The banana plantation where some major ‘weeding’ is going on... Blonde and me sitting side by side doing some serious weeding. Imagine the smell of earth, mud on your fingers, and sweat on the body...

Vagabond: "Did you see the play yesterday?"

Hot Blonde: "Naw, I missed it"

"I went with the guys. It was quite good"

She bends over, leans ever so closer, breasts too close and beautiful to miss. white limbs covered in red earth…

"There's a movie day after. If you like..."

I smiled, about to reply,

"awwwwwwooaaaa", She's on her feet screaming like an Amazon warrior

Skirt hikes up further, if that's possible, right hand brandishes a scissors.

"I know these bastards." 

Her left hand plucks something out of the hidden recesses of her right thigh.

"Err,ahem, think they are called ticks"

“Fuckers”

She looks at the poor little 'fucker', never thought a woman's face could express cruelty so blatantly.

Scissors get to work on the legs of the mite, done with coldness and immense precision. Satiated bliss on face, too real to miss. CHOP ! CHOP! CHOP!.

"So?"

"Eh?"

"About day after tomorrow?"

"Ugh, ive got something coming up, maybe some other time. Excuse me; think I need to go get some fresh air.."

P.S: Friends, I’ve been blogging for more than a decade now and if you think my writing still stinks , check out my older posts and you will be grateful ! But to be fair there are some nice ones and here's one of my favourites. This is based on a real incident in Auroville, December 2009.

S & M

This incident happened in my vagabonding days when I was in Auroville staying in a farm. We had to work in the farm for 2 hours every day in exchange of accommodation and breakfast. Sometimes other residents would join us for the mooring work.

During my stay, there were mostly guys on the farm and it was good. We could be ourselves, walk around almost naked in the bare minimum and dispense with politeness. So imagine the chaos when a hot blonde 'un turned up. She always used to wear a long red skirt with purple splotches, tucked high up, when she worked. It looked as if she was wearing a micro mini if anything at all. As far as I know none of the guys was complaining .

God must have spent a disproportionate amount of time on her legs .In case that didn't do the trick, she would often wear a black sleeveless top with a low neck. Ah with colleagues like that you don’t mind working the extra hour! She seemed mildly interested in me for some reason. This was the turning point in our relationship:-

Scene: The banana plantation where some major ‘weeding’ is going on... Blonde and me sitting side by side doing some serious weeding. Imagine the smell of earth, mud on your fingers, and sweat on the body...

Vagabond: "Did you see the play yesterday?"

Hot Blonde: "Naw, I missed it"

"I went with the guys. It was quite good"

She bends over, leans ever so closer, breasts too close and beautiful to miss. white limbs covered in red earth…

"There's a movie day after. If you like..."

I smiled, about to reply,

"awwwwwwooaaaa", She's on her feet screaming like an Amazon warrior

Skirt hikes up further, if that's possible, right hand brandishes a scissors.

"I know these bastards." 

Her left hand plucks something out of the hidden recesses of her right thigh.

"Err,ahem, think they are called ticks"

“Fuckers”

She looks at the poor little 'fucker', never thought a woman's face could express cruelty so blatantly.

Scissors get to work on the legs of the mite, done with coldness and immense precision. Satiated bliss on face, too real to miss. CHOP ! CHOP! CHOP!.

"So?"

"Eh?"

"About day after tomorrow?"

"Ugh, ive got something coming up, maybe some other time. Excuse me; think I need to go get some fresh air.."

Farm days - part deux

                                      My cousins who are studying in a nearby university invited me over for their Diwali celebrations. The program consisted of a mix of classic dances and Bollywood style singing and dancing. Students show their appreciation for the fine arts in strange ways in India; mostly it’s by howling and making a thorough racket. There's dancing and merrymaking in the aisles and you can always count on some guys getting drunk and having a fist fight to mark the grand finale of the program. As an artist if you can perform nonplussed in an Indian college environment, you can make it anywhere in the world. It's the same with driving in India! The ensuing dinner and open air discotheque reminded me of my college days, the bravado of the men, the coyness of the girls and the latent sexual tension in the air...

Aurovillians are a curious bunch, and you get the feeling of complete normalcy and 'shanti', but just below the surface there’s a thin sheen of insanity. Very subtle but it’s there, and something that I like as well. Normal can be the old librarian who's so grouchy and unpredictable that a lot of people avoid the library on his behalf. Somehow there's something pathetic about seeing a man shriveled up with age using the 'f'' word indiscriminately.

The roads in Auroville are mostly red earth and so when the monsoon gets going, cycling on it is like riding a wild horse. Galloping around the town at night in pitch darkness with just starlight and moonshine to guide you, its exciting stuff despite the sore bum at the end of the ride. Another small pleasure is to have the farm cat curl up in your lap when you are  flopped down in the hanging armchair. The cat's got good manners; it always puts a paw in your lap first asking for permission before jumping on board....

I also did a heat test on my capsule. Despite the name, the test is more severe on the occupant than the accommodation. The deal is you have to stay put in your residence for the whole day without any electrical devices to help you beat the heat. It got really sticky sweaty around noon for some hours but apart from that it wasn't too bad. So people can survive in the capsule, provided it's not summer. During my stay here, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time in the capsule. The sunsets are something to die for and different each day! Also spotted some wild rabbits and the lone deer.

The last two weeks it was raining non stop and the farm flooded. But it was great working and getting soaking wet. Felt like a child again. Being run exclusively by volunteers all sorts of people come and go. Most come to Auroville for less than a week hoping to mix some volunteer work with their stay to get an "Auroville experience'. Too little time in my opinion...

Farm days...part 1

I let out a mighty yawn and slowly stretch my body. The rising sun is visible through the bamboo bay window;resembling a shimmering gold chain in the eastern sky . Suddenly my toe is stinging and itching like crazy and I realize it's the colour of beetroot. I swear aloud thinking this must be the doing of the bloody black little scorpion again. I gingerly limp down the steps of my 'capsule', my current residence.

It's raised high on four stone pillars with sloping roofs made of brown coconut leaves sewn together and artistically supported by bamboo poles. There are three huge traingular bay windows sloping away into  the surrounding  forest. A completly 'biodegradable' residence ! The capsule's in an organic farm where I am expected to work 5 days a week from 6 to 9 in the morning. The buzz word here is solar and eveything runs on it. So forget about electric luxuries we take for granted like a fan or fridge. If you're nice, they will let you have a solar lamp and that's about it.  

Inside  view capsule

As i look up...

The farm's got a little bit of everything including tomato, basil, runner beans, sweet potato, cashew, bananas, etc. Work involves digging the soil and getting your hands messy with planting , watering, etc. There's also compost and liquid fertilizer, the smell of which nearly caused me to pass out once.  There's something sublimaly calming and grounding about getting your hands and feet dirty with soil. I try to work barefoot as much as possible and love it so far except for the odd scorpion encounter.

The geographical location of the farm is in Auroville, an experiment in community living with a spiritual base, located in Pondicherry , a former French colony in South East india. The population of 2000 is made up of equal number of Westerners and Indians inspired by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo , the Mother and an environmentally minimum impact living. There is no personal ownership of land or houses. Everything belongs to the community as a whole.

After the farm work and a hot breakfast I set off on my cycle to explore the township. There's Matri Mandir, an imposing structure made solely for meditation, as also numerous walks in the  forest. 

Matri Mandir

Auroville over the past 40 years has taken on a green look from a denuded overgrazen land thanks solely to its early inhabitants who planted more than a million trees. Lunch's usually in a communal kitchen run supposedly on solar power feeding hundres of people everyday. Its pretty impressive ! There's plenty of new age things happening all around. So the usual bits of yoga, astrology, tantra, chanting, kundalini manipulation and what not... 

The peak season in Auroville stretches from December to March when the weather is most amiable. A time of never ending workshops culture programs and other activities. A couple of days into my stay I saw my first live kathakali performance. It was riveting stuff even if one doesn't understand everything that's going on. Just last week there was a 'rainbow dance' bringing together dance from all over the world and India performed exclusively by Aurovillians.

Post Script: Article put together by notes i made during my month long stay in a farm some months back.