Down Memory Lane

Auroville Architect — Roger Anger

I heard of Roger Anger the day Mother spoke to Navajata about him in connection with Auroville. That was when the Auroville idea was just getting known. An offer was received from him in his firm's name for the architectural services to be rendered by him to Auroville.

"I am giving you a costly architect," Mother said to Navajata when she gave him the paper of offer, and asked him, "Are you willing?" With his characteristic enthusiasm Navajata had expressed his readiness and given me the offer for comments. It was the usual commercial type of offer and needed a lot of finance. When I told Navajata that he was incurring a big liability by signing his acceptance, he hoped that in the course of Mother's working the offer and its acceptance would be forgotten and money for Roger's services will not be needed. That is how it happened later. Roger would not only render his architectural services without any honorarium, he would spend from his own pocket for it.

I felt deeply attracted towards Roger, one of the oldest lovers of Auroville, from the moment of our first introduction and when I went to his architectural drawing office set up in the old State Bank of India Building at Pondicherry he received me heartily and showed me around.

In February 1971, when the Matrimandir digging started with a small team of residents of Auroville, Roger came to the site and although I held a chetti in my hands, he embraced me and exclaimed to the whole team, "Now Auroville will be built!"

Mother told me clearly that in architecture we have to do as Roger says. I have always adhered to it, whether I agreed with him or not, and this has brought upon me the displeasure of other architects who have different tastes.

Once Mother told me, "What you are saying is right; what Roger is saying is also right. Do as he says." I do not exactly

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remember the occasion of it, but I do remember that for the sake of harmonisation, Mother expected me to get over my conceptions of being right.

Roger had not been very keen for the Matrimandir as a priority. He was one of those who were not happy with me for the special attention I was giving to the Matrimandir work.

Now, only some years ago, one evening he saw me on the road in Auroville and unexpectedly asked the person on the driver's seat to halt. He shook hands and embraced me with his old heartiness and said that he felt that Matrimndir must be built first for the coming up of Auroville. I also had been permitted after a long break to participate in the Matrimandir work and both of us were naturally joyous over the chance meeting. His intimate associate Jacqueline who was driving also looked pleasantly shocked. In the seventies, speeding her motor cycle from the opposite direction on the outskirts of the Matrimandir, followed by some supporters, she had threatened to bump into me to prevent me from proceeding further.

After the passing of Mother, Roger exhorted people to speak without quoting Mother. Once when he was insisting on this point, someone asked him how he could speak as the Chief Architect of Auroville. Roger spontaneously quoted Mother for it.

During Mother's lifetime Roger wondered why day after day Mother was seeing so many of her secretaries and people and wasting her time and health. He spoke about it several times. That was towards the end of 1972 or early 1973. Then Mother called for the list of those who went to her daily. After the few names of those who preceded me, when my name came, Mother said, "But he needs me every day," and the exercise stopped.

Roger, it seems, once stopped going to Mother out of annoyance. Mother told me that Roger was not coming to her those days and that I should speak to him to resume meeting her. My task turned out to be very easy. Coming down the Meditation Hall stairs I saw Roger going up to Mother.

He was quite disturbed about the disharmony among the disciples at the Ashram in general and among two of his friends,

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Navajata and Udar, in particular. One day Mother spoke to both of them in the presence of Roger. This significant talk came out in the Bulletin.

About 1975, when Roger started indulging in separate meetings with Navajata and others regarding Auroville affairs and issuing disharmonious notes in the name of the free expression of his views which, he insisted, had to be accepted for Auroville development. Andre knew that Roger was expected to look after his architectural work only and not to impose himself in other fields, and he spoke to him of the grave consequences that would ensue if Mother's directions were not followed. But he was not listened to. The Auroville game was on.

Years passed, and in October 1982 Alain Grandcolas, after talking separately to us, hopefully arranged a meeting between Roger and Navajata at Paris. Roger proposed with his usual frankness and honesty that both of them and I had been working together when Mother was there and we should resume. But Navajata chose to go back to his old stand that I should be kept out. The matter ended there.

Two years ago when the person in charge of nominations of members of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation asked me about Roger's name, I whole-heartedly supported the idea and also cleared a factual misinformation in his mind about his architectural abilities. Recently he has been appointed a member of the Governing Board and I was happy to know of it from the newspapers. In the Governing Board he is the only one who had contact with Mother in relation to Auroville.

The only suggestion I ever made to Mother about Roger's architecture was when I asked her whether it was not possible to realise the concept of beauty in simplicity. She said that it was certainly possible and she had spoken to Roger about it more than once.

Roger's love of form and beauty is admirable. After he showed his model of Matrimandir to Mother, she spoke to me of its beauty. Afterwards the model has been the object of criticism by many for one reason or the other, but I have always chosen to go by Mother's appreciation of it.

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These days there have been again comments regarding the difficulties in the execution of his concepts and his delay in furnishing details, Roger assures us that he will give us a thing of beauty which we would be happy to see. We can safely rely on him for it.

The artist in Roger can not submit to any other demand than that of beauty.

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