Auroville: Dream and Reality

An Anthology

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Auroville has a reputation as a cosmopolitan, spiritual township, but it remains an enigma to outside observers. What is life really like in the community? What do its residents believe in, and what are they aspiring toward? This anthology of writing from the community, edited by a long-time resident and representing forty-odd authors from around the world, seeks to shed light not only on Auroville’s ideals but also on its lived reality. The polyphonic narratives in this eclectic collection-including fiction, essays, poetry and drama-capture something of the dreams, hopes, disappointments and sheer hard work that make up this complex, layered and constantly evolving place.

Enlivened by cartoons and accompanied by rare archival photographs, Auroville: Dream and Reality is a view from the inside of this remarkable experiment in communal and intentional living.

‘Auroville is one of the great moral adventures of our time-a brave attempt to break from orthodox political and economic institutions, and create a new community. This bracing anthology describes the bittersweet paradoxes and tensions inherent in building a new city on a hill’-Pankaj Mishra, author of Butter Chicken in Ludhiana
‘This wonderful anthology puts flesh and bones on the experience of building, living, challenging and refining the utopian ideal-a rich portrayal of reality for all who nurture hopes for a better world’-Vishakha Desai, Asia Society Emerita President