B.V. Doshi
Dr. B.V. Doshi is a former member of the Auroville Governing Board and was the first chairman of the Town Development Council.
(B.V. Doshi:) “My first visit was in 1970, when Matrimandir was being built. That was the time I met Piero etc. And subsequently I had a correspondence with Roger. And he wanted me to somehow get involved with the plan, the project [of Auroville]. It didn't materialize. Thereafter, when I came back again, I was with him and he reminded me, and felt very bad: ‘I told you, but you never replied to my letter and didn't want to do anything...’
So coming back to the Auroville Master Plan, and having also been on the Governing Board, I had a chance to discuss the city, the city's growth, and the kind of challenges that are there for land acquisitions, connections with other places. And every time I saw the plan, with a huge green area drawn, I always felt a little saddened: ‘what a thing Auroville can be’. It's such a beautiful plate of verdant land, with all kinds of potentials, brilliant people from different countries (because I met many of them, including you [Anu]), and always we discussed Mother, and Mother's vision and Auroville.
So coming back to this: to me, Auroville implies ‘City of Dawn’. It is the city which is on the emergence, when the sun rises up, and you begin to see this new city: unimaginable, fantastic, the kind of world that is there.
When we did the regional plan in the surrounding areas and I saw those water bodies, I wondered, ‘what is happening to this place?’ At that time there were discussions on population, discussions on growth of Auroville itself. A lot of things were being discussed in the committees, and I was there in the committee.
The thing that I found was that Roger's plan of the Galaxy... to me it suggests a whole lot of visions. Visions of connectivity, potentials, diversities, huge amount of choices – including the potentials of getting a place for everybody. It was really the city of the universe.”[1]
“When I did the Aranya housing, one of the most important things that I tried to say was, ‘how do you get the commonest person, and make him feel happy and a part of a society?’ And ‘how can they build their own world in their own way, and rejoice in life?’”[2]
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