Right up your Rue

This is the time you are told love is in the air, along with inflated paper hearts and red balloons. But if you want to escape all the glitz and find quiet romance among the piers and patios, or find a new experience to immerse yourself in, this weekend may just be right.

Pick up a new skill:

Brew your own coffee: Skip the champagne and raise a toast with coffee that you brew on Valentines Day. Dreamers Caf, which sits close to the Visitors Centre, known for its pastries and coffee blended by Marc Tormo, will give visitors an insight into the rituals of coffee making, from roasting beans to making different blends. The team at the caf, enriched by its tour of coffee farms and participation in the World Cacao Summit 2014, is keen to share its experiences with those who swear by coffee or want to roast their own cacao. You may walk away with a recipe or two after the session that will begin at 4 p.m.

Grow your own paper: If the smell of paper is your favourite scent on earth, then you should give this workshop a try and gain an ancient but cool skill making your own paper. Auroville Papers, which has been manufacturing handmade paper and paper products for 15 years, will guide participants in harvesting plants, preparing fibre, making pulp, and carrying out the different techniques of couching, lifting and drying and ultimately making their own creations out of handmade paper. Materials will be supplied at the workshop on February 14. For fees and details, call 0413 2622 122

Try warm water as therapy: Lying back and letting warm water wash all over you is a languid alternative to a day filled with exploration. The Paradise Spa at the Dune Eco Resort has introduced Watsu, a Zen Shiatsu inspired treatment which taps into the therapeutic benefits of warm water. Couples can avail themselves of special sessions on February 14. The therapy apparently allows you to float freely, with the waters rhythm providing light acupressure and replicating a cradling movement akin to a baby suspended in the womb.

If music be the food of love:

Pondy is all ready to rock, roll and jazz with eight back-to-back concerts lined up for a four day music festival which forms the highlight of the month-long Pondy Partages 2015, hosted by the Alliance Francaise and Department of Tourism.

Bengaluru-based Mad Orange Fireworks will get Friday night on its feet with their own brand of music which they call as Orange Rock- a blend of jazz, rock, funk and pop. Following the act is Ministry of Blues who do not play lonesome, soulful blues but rather infuse classic blues with modern rock. Kicking Saturday night into swinging mode will be Latination, a quartet comprising French and Indian musicians whose promise to mix up some rumba with modern jazz, Latin boleros with compelling Afro-Cuban dance music. Chennai-based F16 will end the night taking alternative dance music to a high-energy level. Sunday night begins with a strong tropical breeze as Monique Fatna renders Caribbean spiritual numbers. Bringing the curtains down are Lagori, whose brand of music is touted to be a catchy combination of Indian classical melodies with Rock music. All concerts are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Kamban Kalai Arangam.

Screen Affair:

This weekend Auroville hosts a marathon of a different kind one that will appeal to film buffs rather than fitness freaks. The 7 Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema, a collaborative initiative by Aurofilm and the Directorate of Film Festivals, Delhi will screen movies in the regional languages, including Bengali, Kannada, Marathi and Odia on all three days of the weekend. The movies span a spectrum of subjects from a relationship between two dwarves who work in a circus (Chhotoder Chobri) and a mother-child relationship that explores the conflict between scientific curiosity and spiritual traditions (Elisabeth Ekadashi) to an Odisha tribes first contact with modern civilization in Adim Vishar) and indebtedness in rural Maharashtra (Ek Hazarachi Note). P. Sheshadri, Kannada director behind various award-winning films, will participate in the festival at Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas in Auroville.

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Right up your Rue