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… We have arranged to wait for the cart at the turn into Auroville, in case it is
stopped at the Check-Post – obtaining cement has become a gamble!
It starts raining; we take shelter near a tea-shop on the roadside. Two SAS guys
are loitering there, one of them quite drunk, who begins to tease G.M…
The bullock-cart is approaching; as it is about to turn, the bullock, exhausted, drops
on the side of the dirt road – 25 bags of cement is too heavy a weight for a single
bullock: we have to go and get a second cart and divide the load.
G.M wants to go, but the drunken fellow provokes him by standing in the middle of
the road, blocking his way; G.M rushes past, but then he thinks of me staying
alone, brakes and turns back, into another scene: it is like a magnet, energies get
lowered… I pull him out.
Then the two SAS guys move towards the village intending to rouse a mob against
us… I decide to go myself to “Jaïma” and get another cart and ask our people there
to stand watch in the village and see both carts through…
Everyone responds at once, and Diane goes immediately to “Aspiration” to call
more people.
We soon load up the second cart. The others insist that G.M and I must ride back
the other way, via Bommayarpalayam and the Green Belt; it is getting dark; Gupi
comes with us… All the others escort both carts across the village.
Rain starts again. We leave half of the cement at “Jaïma”; the two of us drive
slowly along G.M’s cart the rest of the way; in the dark and the pelting rain, the
bullock falls twice more; in some places it is a torrent of mud…
We make it, drenched, frozen and tired, and the cement has stayed dry under the
plastic sheet…!
*22-7-1980, Auroville:
There is a fastidious meeting, all morning, about the allocation and distribution of a
grant.
This afternoon, after exchanging the Agenda tapes at “Swagatam”, I bring Su,
holding her infant daughter Savitri, to the special meeting on the Visas work.
Diane, Myrtle, Tineke, Joster, P.G and Daniel have come… Everyone seems to take
it for granted that I will continue with the work; Diane is planning to go to Delhi
with P.G; they seem to be doing well together…
… This evening P.V comes to tell me what has just happened to him: he’s just had a
fight with Joster, actually punched him to the ground! (I can sympathise: Joster can
make one’s teeth grind! Yet these things are not supposed to happen among us!)…
… I ask Barbara this evening to type up copies of the new, revised “Master-List”…
*23-7-1980, Auroville:
Annappa and I spend the morning at “Dana” cementing the first coat of the roofs of
the new house. Jacq and Kiran, Bill S, John H and Pas have also come to help,
along with Godendan and G.M’s masons and we all do a good job of it, happily… It
is becoming a beautiful place, very simple but original, unique…
… I have made up my mind regarding Annappa’s future house: it must not be in
bamboo and keet; I want to experiment with a new method, a domed roof made
of… ferro-lime! If it works, it will be very valuable for others as well…!
*24-7-1980, Auroville: