hi

Jiddu. how are you.  are you in pandi or somewhere else. i have seen your Presentation CD. its very useful to us.
we will try to implement PREM concept in our municipality soon. reply me

Regards
N P

N. Prabaharan emailed me three days after the training. He was one of my favourites of the 150+ Tamil Nadu government participants that underwent our intense 3 day packed training course in responsible energy management; learning about energy conservation, energy efficiency and grid tied solar PV.
Combined, these (newly become) energy managers will now aim to reduce energy consumption by 30% and install maximum capacity solar PV in the 8600 municipal buildings that they manage. A project initiated by Chennai, the capital of the state, to be fulfilled within 2 years.

Any random Monday morning at 9 am in the last month. Twenty individuals introduce themselves while standing on an imaginary map of Tamil Nadu (an Indian state the size of England). We ask what they expect to learn throughout the course.
“Energy savings. Energy savings and uhm (…).” The engineer looks at his fellow training attendees for help, despite having only met these people very recently. “Solar energy.” He adds confidently in broken Tamil English.

Every course brought us a mix of senior & junior engineers and electricians. Some spoke English a quite well, others not a word. Three long days later they had seen a few hundred slides, tested superfans and LEDs, were part of either the mango, banana or papaya team, stood on several of Auroville’s roofs, played big fish little fish and molecule, worked on our excel templates and finally received their certificate and ‘Presentation CD’.

It was though and in Tamil Nadu they are not shy to let you know how they feel. Fun and odd situations came up, predictable when you consider the cultural differences between the locals and the trainers from Germany, Austria, Bangladesh, Odisha and the Netherlands. By the end we would end up a happy family and feedback would be heart-warming.

“In four years university I became mechanical engineering, you make me electrical engineer in three days.”

I have spent about six months now working with Auroville Consulting and it has been as much fun as it has been inspiring. The few projects I work on have depth and are challenging all focusing on creating a beautiful, sustainable and pleasant world of natural and technical abundance to share.