preparing for concert appearance Rishikesh

Keith and I are preparing for a cameo appearance in a music concert in Rishikesh--go figure! We are enjoying the peace and quiet of the Parmarth Ashram here, where there are three square meals a day, pretty gardens of azalea like plants with red orange and purple blossoms, and a warm and friendly atmosphere. This is our last week in India. Today we were reading the writings of the head teacher, apparently a living saint, associated with the ashram. I also connected with Rashmi Tilak at the Om Rudra Cultural Society and before I knew it he asked me to send him our pictures for a flyer about a Sunday concert that we will be performers in. our pic will be on walls all over the town soon. Communication can be interesting here. I am not sure at this point how the conversation produced Keith and I being on a concert on Sunday. I was spending time with Rashmi on flute playing matters, asking questions and playing some alankars he gave me. Alankars are extra movements like grace notes that create more beauty in flute tunes. I made a photo of Keith and I playing flute and singing to send to Rashmi for his poster he is having produced this afternoon. Here is the image above. Ashram garden is in the backround. I have been meaning to blog about the traffic here and life on the streets. In India you share the street with street vendors. This is the biggest oper air shopping mail in the world . As you try to walk down the street to get to your destination, and yes I do mean to say street because often there isn't a sidewalk, people try to hawk and sell their stuff, holy men try to get your attention , beggars ask for money, and cows also wonder by, and in all directiosn at the same time. As a westerner you attact even more attention. the holy men are also generally beggars hoping for a few coins and are dressed in orange robes. they are renunciates of all things wordly. It is often necessary to take a cab somewhere and this exposed you the driving method here, which after a while I have come to understand sort of mostly in full. You honk loudly at everything that is in your apparently rightful place on the road as the all powerful vehicle drive, including , cows, monkeys, women carrying children, locals, tourists, other cars, everything and everything. And two inches clearance to pass any other moving object is an acceptable margin of clearance. So you might be inches from a mammoth truch or a small child as you the powerful operator of a wheeled vehicle. Very few if anyone at all drives here, everyone stakes a taxi. In Ajmer I could feel myself actually breathing while we were being chauffered, this was a good thing as usually I stop breathing and gasp at every apparent close call on the road here; the reason I could breathe is that we got into a bicycle rickshaw and life seemed good on the road because we were moving so slow, as some poor fellow tried to lug two grown men, Keith and I, up and down small hillls, over potholes , etc., on a leg powered cart. Although Rishikesh where we are now is less populated and is mostly pedestrian, because the area we are in is reached only by a pedestrian bridge, motorcycles are here! They cross the pedestrian bridge louding beeping and honking and clearing everything out of their way. The relief from all of this street commotion has occured in Bhagsu, where we were just recently, and also somewhat here in Rishikesh things are easier on this count. - David

Dharavi Slumdog Millionaire

Namaste, early in our travels last month, we visited the slum from the movie Slumdog Millionaire located in Bombay. I didn't blog about it back then but thought some would be interested. Our time in Bombay was frought with difficulty crossing the street and negotiating with high , noise and confusion. But back to topic of the slum. We are part of a tour group, of Westerners, visiting the slum. Our guide took us all throughout the area, where over a million people live inside something like 1 sqaure kilometer. Our guide only gave positive info about the slum, such as the nonexistent or very low crime when compared to the rest of the city. Our guide said that the slum was a tight knit community where everyone knew each other and it was not possible to step out of line without everyone knowing. We visited recylcying plants, food factories, and other businesses. The children in the slum were quite smiley. Our guide told us that the slum produces 6 million a year in USD goods and services. One business there takes used tin cans which had olive oil and other food oils in them and prepares them for reuse, sending them back to the food companies to put new oil in them. I remember also clothing makers and also a leather shop where leather was being made usable to use in other products. We saw many different religions represented and in one area of the slum was a small shrine that contains images from Christiainity, Islam, Hindu and probably a few other traditions. Our guide claimed there was no other shrine in Mumbai where all traditions were okay for worship. With the low crime rate , the claims of a high level of community and religious tolerance, it looked and sounded like a place to be admired. Our group called Reality tours guided us through the slum. During our time in India a fire broke out in a Mumbai slum, where a female actor from the Slumdog movie still lives to this day (even though the trust from the movie bought here an apt. in a more prosperous area of Mumbai.) The actress, according to the papers, was bemoaning the loss of all of her memorabilia from the movie. Her hut or flat burned to the ground along with many other slumdweller's homes a few weeks ago. She was still living in the slum I think because that is where her sense of home was. ---David

Pics from yesterdays travels around Dharamsala

Figures at the Tibetan Doll Museum at the Norblinka Institute in Dharamshala document and show the history of the Tibetan people with lovely detail through various displays of doll figures.













Right. Norblinka Institute is for the preservation of Tibetan Arts and Culture. We went here and saw artisans at work. They are in three to seven year program. One program is for artists to make Thankgas, which are traditional depictions of buddhist images.








One of the Karmapas lives here, right, at a monastery in Dharamshala. As I understand it, he lives in exile from Sikkim, where it is considered to be too dangerous for him to "take up his seat" there. You can see a some of the Himalayas in the backround, although some clouds are covering the snow capped peaks.


Not pictured from yesterdays travels is our visit to an Interfaith event presided over by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar yesterday evening. The interesting thing about this last activity was witnessing the affection the up near 20 thousand people have for Sri Sri Ravi! There was so much laughter in the crowd as Ravi spoke with them and answered their questions about life. Sri Sri has the "Art of Living" organization. On the stage were various Swamis and religious leaders, including a rep from the Dali Lama. I think all the leaders were from Himachal Pradesh, which is a state within the larger country of India. Sri Sri is an amazing personality able to connect with so many people. The event was in Hindi so we understood little. We saw scant Westerners in the crowds. I know that Sri Sri Ravi visits the U.S. and Denver area, but this is the first I have seen him in action--a tremendous personality indeed. Keith started laughing along with the crowd, but didn't know what he was laughing at. People were asking serious questions about life during a question and answer period, and at times Sri Sri was quite impassioned with his answers.

---David

Hospitality in India, traffic, this and that

To my friends in the U.S.,

there is an amazing level of hospitality and care here in India, especially in the small towns. In the larger city, you are likely to be scammed or targeted by those who want tourist dollars. In Usgaon, in Ajmer, in Bhagsu, we have encountered an unusual and unrecognizable to our U.S. experience, a kind of caring from various service workers as well as other professionals. The people cleaning the hotel rooms, fixing your food, often carry a devotion to their task. People go out of their way to be of assistance asking for nothing in return.
In the small village of Usgaon, I tried to tip the service person in the guest house who was responsible for taking care of the room. He wouldn't take the tip. Later I found out he had turned down all tips from past Westerners who had stayed at the school in Usgaon where we did our volunteer stint teaching music.
In the city of Ajmer, which is fairly large, not a small town, the family run inn took great care in fixing meals for us, in helping us to mail a parcel back to the U.S. and in advising us after our train was cancelled (because protestors were lying on the tracks) as to what to do.
The "guest" is up there with mother and father in terms of honoring your fellow human beings in the culture of India.
McLoed Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives, we found this quality I am speaking of, this hospitality, to be lacking, and instead encountered a ennui, a sort of boredom in the people around us. Slightly above Mcloed, in Bhagsu, the hospitality seems to have returned and is evident again. Right now we are in Bhagsu, and may or may not travel further from here before our departure from India on April 4th. It is strange and beautiful to encounter the people here bring of service in fairly "low" position with joy and devotion in their hearts. This is so different from the U.S.
--David

Young Sneha singing "Borivali"

One afternoon during our music classes at the residential girls' school in Usgaon, David and I asked the girls to sing us some of their favorite songs. Many of the girls took turns singing traditional folk songs in Marathi, the language of Maharashtra.

Young Sneha, probably about age 11 or 12, sang this haunting and beautiful song that struck me immediately, and I later asked her to sing it again so that I could record it.

The subject of the song, "Borivali," is a young woman who has just married, and as is tradition has moved from her parents' house to her new husband's home. The song finds the woman, lonely and missing her family, asking a bird to carry a message to her mother, telling her that the daughter is finding her new life well. To herself, the girl confesses her sadness but vows to keep that sadness in her heart.

Click below to be taken to podbean, where you can listen to "Borivali." Sneha's voice is clear and true.

click here to listen to "Borivali"

Sacred Places

(Pic right of Golden Temple, Amritar, from the roof of our hotel. Pic right below closer up)
We left the Mumbai area on Sunday March 13 and started making our way north with stops planned at Sufi, Sikh and Buddhist sacred places. Our first stop, in Ajmer, was to visit the tomb of the founder of the Chisti branch of the Sufis. ( Khwaja Muinuddin Chisty) This branch eventually made its way to North America in a form divorced from the Islamic component. The Dances of Peace originate from the Chisti branch. (Pic of Ajmer darga embedded in text here.) Very fortunately, a young Muslim man decided to guide us through the Ajmer dargah or tomb. Our young guide went and procured a couple of pamphlets in the English language. The teachings in the pamphlet spoke of being as affectionate as the sun, shining on friend and enemy alike, and humble like the earth. They spoke of drawing near to "the Friend," the divine Beloved as a path to eclipse the smaller egoistic sense of self. The
teachings also stated that the highest worship is to serve the poor and oppressed. The Sufi Saint whose tomb we were visiting had a "humanistic" message, said the pamphlet, that won the hearts of many through its concern with the suffering of humanity. We were both very moved by the beauty of this dargah, by the teachings we read about, and the Quawal singing or devotional singing that we listened to here.

In Pushkar, near to Ajmer, we connected with a musician at the Saraswati School of Music. He took a print of my hand size in order to obtain a bass bamboo flute for me with a rich professional tone. He also spent awhile with us going through various aspects of Indian music

Next we made are way to Dehli, where we were to hear another group of Quawals at a different dargah, the tomb of Nizamuddin.

The Quawal singing here at the Nizamuddin tomb was even better than at Ajmer. Late in the night, around 9:30pm we made our way to the nearby tomb of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and then the next morning to Pir Vilayat Khan's tomb. Pir Vilayat is someone whose programs I went to when he was alive and teaching spiritual growth and meditation in the Atlanta GA area. At Pir's tomb is a very large heart with wings embedded in a stone wall which reads "Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, the only Being"

We travelled a bit further north to Amritar next where we were fully doused in various colors and dyes during the Holi festival and our visit to the Durgiana Temple. Facinated by our presence at the temple, some of the singers and dancers there drew us into their celebration, garlanded us with roses, and covered us in various dusty dyes that stained our faces and clothes.
We also went to the Golden Temple, a Sikh pilgrimage place, in Amritsar. When Indira Ghandi was assasinated several years back by her Sikh bodyguards, she had recently send a police force into the Golden Temple to arrest some type of untoward operation that was hiding out in the temple, according to a very popular novel I am reading set in India title "Shantaram." Apparently this was a huge political mistake on her part as it cost her her life. In Amritsar we also heard singing of chants or bhajans.

This whole week of traveling north was filled with Hindu, Sufi and Sikh music--harmonium, flute, chanting, drones. Sometimes I would find music stations on the T.V. in the hotels of this music, facinated by the sounds.

The last leg of our northward journey is McLoed Ganj, where we have visited the Tibetan people in exile. Its very cool and mountainous, with more Westerners about, studying Buddhism I presume or the holistic options in the area. One thing that stands out is the suffering of the Tibetan people. There are many reminders and references to their difficult journey at each Tibetan museum or temple we visit. They are a people without a home. Every year a Tibetan person has to re-register with the Indian government for legal residency here in India. Today we saw buildings of the Tibetan government in exile. Aside from the compassionate gentle message of Tibetan Buddhism we encounter here, I seem to encounter even more strongly the suffering of the Tibetan people. On a large mural in the main Tibetan Buddhist temple here, there are teachings stating that if everyone could imbibe the teachings of the "Kalachakra Tantra" of Tibetan Buddhism, then there would be peace on earth. Apparently these Kalachakra teachings are depicted in all the mandala type murals all over the main temple, and the historical Buddha dispensed these teachings to his followers. Tonight we are attending a talk by Tibetans who were political prisoners. Tommorrow we head up to Bhagsu slightly north of Mcloed Ganj.

(three pics of us smeared with colors , right above, from the Holi Festival at the Durgiana Temple in Amritsar. People take to the streets and douse you in colors during this festival.)

On Sunday March 13, we went to a wedding in Mumbai. That is Sanjiv, the Tabla teacher at the school, having
his photo taken after the ceremony.

Pic right is of the Saturday March


12 program. The second girl from the


left is representing the goddess Durga


who has many arms.

At the Saturday March 12th program, I shared a tune on the Native American flute to an audience of several hundred people, comprised mainly of Adavasi or tribal people of India. The families of the children at the school had come for a 10 year celebration of the school's life. Press covered the event and talked to us informally about how much they liked hearing the songs we taught the children. A tribal instrument of the Adavasi people was also used in the program. We explained to them this instrument I was playing was from the "tribal" people of America.

Dance and Music March 12th

We bid farewell to the students at Usgaon on Sunday March 13. The sadness was palapable and the tears visible in the farewell "ceremony." On March 12th, Saturday , the night before, there was a big music and dance program at the school. The girls sang three English songs--"Come and go with me," "Siyahamba" and "This little light of mine." (pic below). During the farewell ceremony the next day after ther performance, the

children sang these three songs to us

without our assistance, so these songs now belong to them. They are songs from the African American Spirituals tradition and one if from the South African freedom struggle. We explaned the origins of the songs to the students and our wish to share songs of power and joy with them as they journey on their own unique struggle. As indigenous tribal people of India, they have been oppressed and denied human rights. One of the phrases they use in one of their prayers at the school which they sing everyday is--"we are not cattle we are human beings."

Pic to right--school program on Saturday March 12th. Pic above--Keith in the overnight train to Ajmer we took on Sunday March 13 after attending a wedding that same Sunday morning.

March 4 Music Program at the School

On Friday March 4th, the School Choir group presented the songs that we had prepared. The children sang: "This little light of mine," "Siyahamba," "Come and Go with me to that land," and "Oh Freedom." They will sing these songs again on a big school program on March 12th when there will be many visiting guests! Below, me conducting and Keith accompanying the kids on autoharp. Keith and I played some music for guests from the local union organization and for the school body. I sang "If Ever I would leave you" from Broadway as well as Handel's "Thus Saith the Lord." And I played Native flute, explaining that the instrument is from the "tribal" people of America. The children at the school are "tribals"--indigenous people of India. The children got a kick out of all the vocal runs in "Thus Saith the Lord" which occur on the text--"and I will shake." Keith explained to the children that the vocal runs would occur on the words "I will shake" and the children laughed when they heard the runs. Picture at bottom is of Babi, on the left, and Nikita on the right. Babi sings in the choir and plays harmonium! Nikita is one of the singers in the school Vocal Group. Nikita, a very talented singer, is eleven years old and is in the "5th standard" classroom. Perhaps this is equivalent to the fifth grade.

At this program on March 4th, we presented the gifts we will be leaving at the school--a collection of bamboo flutes for the student use, the autoharp Keith is playing, and a few picture story books featuring the words and music of John Denver which Keith and I have been using in the English class.

Prayer

Finally a sound file! Follow this link to hear the prayer whose words are listed previously. In this recording, the prayer is being sung by ten girls, but all 170 sing this song every day.

Prayer