Austin Delaney

(Johnny:) “When I came here, Jan had already a house on the beach. It was not Auroville land. She was very connected to Austin Delaney, this Irish Canadian psychologist who was working with sand boxes. A very interesting guy. But he was very traumatised, his legs were covered with shrapnel wounds from the second World War. He was working with the people of Equals-1. He had a very big house built on the beach there and he dressed only in white. He would have long depressions for three months, when he would only drink and shout and play wind-up phonograph records. Then he would come out of it and would be quite sociable. He had a very large shed there with sand boxes, and a huge array of little things. He was very good with children, and he had a particular interest in the children of Equals-1, and that included Jonas and Chali and a lot of kids. When he moved to where Quiet is now, then Jan built a small house just beside, and Jonas spent a lot of time relating to Austin. That's how she came to be there.”

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