Mantra turned 26 years old on Apr 1st this year just as we completed a full week of lockdown. We were too busy organising how to manage food, shopping, life, the garden etc and also enjoying the utter quiet! I guess all over the world many felt similar feelings, while my heart went out to all those who were sick or suffering and to those who lost near and dear ones. And even more to those who’ve been providing care for them!

We had faced what seemed like extra difficulties about 6-7 years ago and often thought of shutting down.. But the universe had other plans and we failed miserably at that intent and so Mantra 2.0 began and we slowly and steadily climbed back out of the hole and started flourishing, albeit with mostly a local sales market through our shop at the Visitors Centre in Auroville (www.auroville.org).

As the lockdown proceeded and ideas of learning new skills emerged, young Sathyamoorthy who’s joined Auroville, grew up mostly in my home and lives on the premises, got started on throwing larger pieces. There was no point in buying gas and doing stoneware as we’d closed the year with good stock in hand and at our shop. Besides we had plenty of firewood (we use this exclusively now in our small bisque kiln) so we turned to the idea of making flower pots hoping that local people would emerge and buy them even though they cost much more than the other common locally made ones. Ours are wheel thrown, have feet and proper drain holes and even some decoration, and use a stronger clay body and are fired quite well to over 850 deg C.

This is when an appeal for a balance bike for a 1 year old’s upcoming 2^nd birthday led to me digging out my granddaughter’s wooden balance bike out of our dusty storeroom, cleaning it and handing it over to Anouke and her partner Newen. They are guests in Auroville and locked down since the end of March.

The conversation with Anouke led to her visiting the pottery regularly and learning the basics. Their daughter Asami is one of the most precocious two year olds around and hanging out with local folk she has already mastered eating with her hands, identifying spicy food, wearing flowers in her hair and doing a very elegant and correct Namaste or Vanakkam!

Before long Anouke, who had been a marketing manager for Heineken in Amsterdam, started teaching me how to use social media for projecting our work and craft. Soon we were Instagramming (@mantra_pottery) and also posting on our page on Facebook (Mantra Handmade Pottery) and things have started moving online. Our flower pots came out of the kiln and before we could say ‘unglazed terracotta pottery’ Anouke had persuaded several friends and family members to buy these flower pots and donate them to these Outreach Schools in Auroville. The schools we selected were the ones Sathyamoorthy had attended.

Just doing this and seeing how warmly we are being helped has given me a lot of faith in the future. This pandemic is certainly making us all think very differently of the way forward and ahead. There’s a visible outpouring of compassion and care, which is the food and drink of craftspersons and at Mantra we feel very humbled and also cared for. We don’t know what’s ahead, but we do know that we want to keep our team together and to continue to work and flourish and supply excellent pots to whosoever wishes to have them!

Newen has started helping me to make a fresh web site and this is my first attempt to publish something. Our site is a work in progress so bear with us till we have it together!