{"id":1164,"date":"2020-10-07T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T05:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vserver3.auroville.com\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2022-05-06T12:50:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T08:20:54","slug":"a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was like: \u2018What are all these words, yo?\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA friend of mine from Bangalore told me about Auroville. She said that we should go and have a girls\u2019 trip. I thought, \u2018Why not?\u2019 My father is in real estate and development, so I looked at the Galaxy Plan online and I was like, \u2018I want to see that cool design!\u2019 It was only after I landed that I realized it\u2019s not there (laughs<\/em>), it was just a picture of the model plan for the town.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The girls didn\u2019t come on the trip so I had to go by myself to check it out. I came with a proper intention: I wanted to explore the place for one month. I got in touch with Savi who gave me the volunteering opportunity to work with CIRHU (Centre for International Research on Human Unity), and I was like oh, this can be cool. But they only accepted people for 3 months minimum. I didn\u2019t have much going on at that time, so again, I just thought: \u2018Why not?\u2019 I checked in for 3 months. That\u2019s how I ended up in Auroville for the first time, in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an interesting time because I was in a complicated working environment, and it was not so clear from the beginning what would be my job. So I made it easier: after the first meeting on CIRHU I told them that I wanted to stick to that project. After that first meeting I slept for 4 hours, it was so heavy. I was supposed to take notes for that meeting and I am just there, holding the pen, and after half an hour Juergen turns to me and says: \u2018You, new girl, are you even taking notes or what?\u2019 And I said, \u2018If I understand something, I will write something!\u2019 (laughs<\/em>) \u2018What are these things you speak of?\u2019 It was so funny! In my mind I was going: \u2018What is this, what is that?\u2019 and he would just talk and talk and talk. We were preparing a document for what CIRHU wanted to be as a university, and they were saying it was going to be a bridge between past and future, matter and spirit, within and without, evolution of consciousness\u2026 and I was like: \u2018What are all these words, yo?\u2019 (laughs<\/em>) I didn\u2019t even know back then who are Mother and Sri Aurobindo. I asked in the meeting: \u2018What is Integral Yoga?\u2019 (laughs<\/em>) And I guess they were all like, what is this girl even doing here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    My first impression of Auroville was through two people, Giacomo and Michael. First, I remember that Giacomo taught me an important lesson in the first few days, because I had too much energy and enthusiasm and I wanted to do everything. He explained to me then the joy of working \u2013 so I understood, ah ok, you work for the joy of the work; you don\u2019t work for the work. That was a strong impression I got then of Auroville, that this is a place to find the joy in working, not the other way around. You are not trying to prove something or get stuff done, but instead, you are working as part of the joy of being alive. So this was an important first impression for me. Secondly, a strong experience came with Michael and the CIRHU group. We were 5 people sitting in a circle talking about what research could be in Auroville. There was one person from Brazil, then Giacomo is Italian, there was a French person, a German, me being Indian\u2026 and I was like: \u2018How are these 5 people coming from such different backgrounds going to come up with a paper?\u2019 And they did. So I saw there that it doesn\u2019t matter where you come from, here you can come together and find a way forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After 4 months I left, I was like, \u2018Well, this was great, but I am moving on.\u2019 I wanted to travel 100 countries, I was on a world tour and Auroville was just a pit stop on the way. I had plans to travel for 5 years. Then after Auroville I went to Indonesia, then Thailand, and I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about this place. And I told myself, \u2018No, no, what are you doing, stop thinking about it. You are just missing it because you just came from there.\u2019 Then I went home for the festivals and took another trip to North-East India and I couldn\u2019t focus on the trip. All the while I was thinking about Auroville. Once I came home, within 10 days I moved to Auroville, this time to settle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I think the biggest work that Auroville has done on me and that I really enjoy is that it helps me to break down my ego. Where I come from, it\u2019s very easy to slip into that comfortable zone where you think that you are entitled to certain things. While I was growing up, I never saw any ego in my grandmother. She was a sadhak<\/em> in a very deep sense, so I had seen this absolute zero ego in a person while she was alive. She did nothing except her sadhana<\/em>, never complained, never said anything bitchy about anybody\u2026 I always aspired to become like that, but your ego doesn\u2019t let you. And I had not before made the connection of how I was trying to be that, but that my ego would not let me be that. She passed away when I was 18 and I didn\u2019t think much about it at the time, because I had not yet made that connection, but now I understand how to progress, how I can be more like her.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Auroville is a big help there. For me, Auroville is about how transformation is shoved down your throat somehow (laughs). You don\u2019t even have to do anything, you just go from point A to point B every day, do the same mundane task, and it just doesn\u2019t stop there. The people, the energy, it is resilient and it breaks your ego every day. I didn\u2019t realize it in those first 4 months but then while I was gone, I was like, \u2018Wow, this is what it did with me.\u2019 That is what Auroville does. So now I think, if I could just figure out how to stay humble in this life, all my problems will be gone. It\u2019s huge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “I had plans to travel for 5 years. Then after Auroville I went to Indonesia, then Thailand, and I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about this place.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":1934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-volunteering"],"yoast_head":"\nA Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Auroville Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100087506664603\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/test8.tousquilfaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Test-DSC_7981.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1201\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Balaji Subbaraju\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Balaji Subbaraju\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Balaji Subbaraju\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5df34bb2dadbb3416b204fbc52e9f834\"},\"headline\":\"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\"},\"wordCount\":1093,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Volunteering\"],\"articleSection\":[\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\",\"name\":\"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Auroville Adventure\",\"description\":\"All things Auroville\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Auroville\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DJI_0380.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DJI_0380.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":899,\"caption\":\"Auroville\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100087506664603\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5df34bb2dadbb3416b204fbc52e9f834\",\"name\":\"Balaji Subbaraju\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcd11b302301b25d704fee5e2cb49b9035092ad5059d67652fad6e07a09110e9?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcd11b302301b25d704fee5e2cb49b9035092ad5059d67652fad6e07a09110e9?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Balaji Subbaraju\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/author\/balaji\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure","description":"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure","og_description":"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville","og_url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/","og_site_name":"The Auroville Adventure","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100087506664603","article_published_time":"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1201,"url":"https:\/\/test8.tousquilfaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Test-DSC_7981.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Balaji Subbaraju","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Balaji Subbaraju","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/"},"author":{"name":"Balaji Subbaraju","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5df34bb2dadbb3416b204fbc52e9f834"},"headline":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita","datePublished":"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/"},"wordCount":1093,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Volunteering"],"articleSection":["People"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/","url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/","name":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita » The Auroville Adventure","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-10-07T05:49:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-06T08:20:54+00:00","description":"Here is Ankita's story of how she became acquainted with Auroville and decided to stay. Our 'People' interviews show you the human aspect of Auroville","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/a-pit-stop-in-a-world-tour-ankita\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Pit Stop in a World Tour: Ankita"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/","name":"The Auroville Adventure","description":"All things Auroville","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#organization","name":"Auroville","url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DJI_0380.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DJI_0380.jpg","width":1200,"height":899,"caption":"Auroville"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100087506664603"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5df34bb2dadbb3416b204fbc52e9f834","name":"Balaji Subbaraju","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcd11b302301b25d704fee5e2cb49b9035092ad5059d67652fad6e07a09110e9?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcd11b302301b25d704fee5e2cb49b9035092ad5059d67652fad6e07a09110e9?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Balaji Subbaraju"},"url":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/author\/balaji\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4165,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/4165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}