This was my first visit to the Bamboo Centre at Auroville. I went there to improve upon my learning of furniture and material.
I took a bus from Chennai and was there before I knew it. Once I headed into the centre I was introduced to Walter, a freelancer from Belgium who was going to be our mentor. A few more students arrived. Some from Rajasthan and another from Barcelona.
We had a chat with Walter about the benefits of bamboo and he took us on a tour of the campus, showing us what the other students had built.
We then went to the workshop to give our skills a go. We were taught basic joinery. That took a while. By five we were done. After a meal at a nearby bakery with Paola from Barca, I headed back to the centre.
I met Vijay and Logesh there who were in charge of night duty. They were sixteen and they had failed school. Now they were working at the centre and also performed in a drum group, travelling around the country. Vijay had been to Sikkim and was recalling his adventures.
Logesh and Vijay claimed to be in love with their childhood sweethearts too. They made me some French Toast for dinner.
I went over to Walters hut to say hi for a bit. All the residential huts were made of bamboo and eco- material. It was interesting how he told me the story of a private school built for the children in Pondicherry, each child being sponsored by a Godmother and Father from Pondi or Belgium. The school was quite a place, taken from a traditional house and transformed into a learning space with quality areas beyond any regular school.
I soon bid goodbye and hit the bed.
The next day was build day. My team chose to build a chair while the other a table. This was quite a task. After taking the bamboo measurements we just got done with cutting the pieces and the day was over. Again my bakery was there to save the day. On the way back I stopped by a music store and bought a metallophone from them. It was the most serene sound I had ever heard. There were also large wind chimes hung on a tree outside, near which I was sitting and listening.
I headed back with some food to feed me and the dogs at the centre.
Day three was the most challenging. Assembling and gluing the parts in the heat and dust was not easy but it was done quite well as a team effort.
Walter and us were pretty happy with the work done.
We clicked a few pictures commemorating the experience and I took a bus back to Chennai.
Definitely a trip to remember ☺
