Murthy with Ayarpadi’s red pepper harvest
On a steamy April afternoon, I motor
along a narrow sandy path behind the Tibetan Pavilion and discover Ayarpadi
Farm tucked away just beyond the Inuit Inuksuk structure in the International
Zone. Farm manager Murthy takes me for a tour through chilli plants and
vegetable plots, past cow sheds and verdant banana trees, and tells me that he
joined Auroville 27 years ago, inspired by its ideals of peace and tolerance.
As three generations of his family
and some workers sit outside the house, splitting pulses that will satiate
Aurovilians’ appetites, Murthy says he started doing milking “on the side”
whilst he worked in the Water Service for many years, and then slowly built it
up. “The Water Service was a good job,” he says, “but I couldn’t do farming as
well.” He became part of the farming community at Horizon, and expanded his
stock to 15 cows. When Auroville’s schools said they wanted more milk, he told
the Farm Group that he...
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