Sincerity Community
We do not have much on record as to the birth and growth of the community named “Sincerity”, but above is the copy of the message where Mother wrote its name in response to a request written to Her by Gene Maslow, in January 1969. He had first asked permission to build and, when it was ready, asked for a name for the place.
I am presently the only resident who has stayed in Sincerity continuously since 1974, and I can here try and recollect in sequence the various steps over the years.
In 1973, when I started to work at the Matrimandir, only a few people were staying in rudimentary huts in Sincerity, while most of the Matrimandir workers stayed in the Camp. I remember Michael Tait, Tom Greer, Ina, as occupying these huts. Gene Maslow had already left Auroville by then and the hut he had built, which was quite large with an upper floor, was more or less abandoned.
In 1974, I began to repair and remodel it, so a few of us could inhabit it – there was Gerard Marechal mainly who first moved in with me; soon we were joined by others who stayed there a few months or a couple of years, such as Krishna, Gerard Carabin, Herve, Monique, Bernard, Joel and Gaetan, Anappa, Claude, Vicky, and several others, by turn, each for one, two or three years. Michael Tait eventually moved to Centre Field, Tom went back to the USA. Old huts became derelict and it became burdensome to constantly repair them and maintain them against insects mostly.
Meanwhile, we had started to plant trees, not as a forest, but as a park, with the idea that this area could extend in a curve over to where the MM Nursery had begun to develop, and Narad helped provide special trees for the purpose, while we would also plant more densely along the canyon, and fit it with several check-dams down all the way to the lowest point in the village of Kottakarai. This work all along the canyon was the reason for the setting up of a new cluster of small houses for those who would consecrate themselves to the development of this environment and it was named “Darkali” by Krishna. Our primary concern was to establish an entire area of level fields where the rain water could percolate the soil where it fell instead of eroding the topsoil every season. For this purpose we built bunds and leveled each section to let grass grow on it and planted good sturdy trees as well.
We also began to rebuild. I first built a storeroom in ferrocement and granite stones, as an experiment. In addition we dug a well, so we would not draw from the Banyan tree well (we had initially laid a pipeline from there to a couple of precast water tanks near the huts) any longer and would be more able to tend to the developing park. Then I rebuilt the main hut into a stone and ferrocement house with half an upper storey. Philippe later built a small house, also in ferrocement, a little to the West, as we planted more special trees. Gerard M. built a house at the beginning of the canyon that led to Kottakarai and Krishna built a new house a little further down. Dennis (Namas) and Aruna built a house where Elie had first built a large hut with a weaving area for her creations. Adhara and Jossie built their house half-way to the next place named at that time “Fidelity” and later renamed by its occupants “Shanti." Afterwards, Gerard moved to what came to be called “Dana” and Myriam moved into his house with her children. Gillian moved into the house originally built by Philippe.
I also built a second house, both for my mother’s use when she visited yearly, and for newcomers or Aurovillians in need… Francis had also come to stay in another hut, and later built a new house nearby with Minou; Barbara and Ruud also lived there for several years, as well as Pala, Anne and Sam, Catherine, Surya, Ribhu and his family. Over the years, many moved in and out and several more houses were built, each one oriented towards Matrimandir (Susan, then Bhaskar and Prabha, my brother Jean Yves and his family, for instance).
Presently, there are 11 houses altogether, a few storerooms and a small pump house.
The present residents are: Ritam and his children; Adhara and his partner; Lakshman and his family; Soma and his wife; Prema and her son; Kartik; Noe and Tina; Jean Yves, Mi-Hong and Daniel; Bhaskar, Prabha and Pallavi; Dinesh, and myself.
This is not, in fact, either a community nor a settlement, but simply a living area: each resident works in a different place in Auroville, there are no collective activities, there is no guest-house. Each one contributes a minimal amount to a common budget meant to cover the water bills and/or any urgent maintenance need in the water distribution system (which is quite old). We all appreciate this uncomplicated setting.
Diwakar
See Also
