A Month of New Adventures

Blog Entry March 20, 2010

As I write this blog entry I am in my large tent room at the Mojo Rain Forest Retreat around 10 km west of Madikeri, which is in the Coorg Region of Southern Karnataka.  I have been staying here since March 22.   Outside my tent I am surrounded by a beautiful rain forest planted with coffee plants in full bloom, along with plantings of vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, tea, pepper and many other medicinal plants.   I will write more about this amazing place later.  Now I will go back to Thursday, March 4.

On that day I got up around 6:00 am to finish packing and doing a range of necessary errands and goodbyes before leaving MUWCI for the last time.  The 2 months spent at MUWCI seemed like a perfect prelude to my upcoming travels.  I had arranged a 2:15pm flight from Pune to Bangalore.  On the way to the airport I had my MUWCI driver make a stop in downtown Pune to collect my printed ticket and a package that my friend Jehangir wanted me to hand deliver to Bangalore.  All my connections flowed smoothly and I was at the airport around 1:00pm.  This allowed me plenty of time to pass through the very careful but efficient security at the airport.  India is attempting to keep track of all traveler movement.  At all hotels guests must register with a passport and visa photocopy.  It seems the situation with Pakistan regarding Kashmir and the violence surrounding that issue, has the Indian military on continual high alert at all travel centers and government buildings.

My 2-hour flight went smoothly.  I had been instructed by my Bangalore contacts to hop on an airport bus and get off at a particular bus stop, where I would then make a cell phone call and be met.  After the bus dropped me in downtown Bangalore, while waiting for my ride, I was once again impressed with the incredible intensity of urban life in India. There is heavy traffic on every street, yet the flow of vehicles (which appear to follow no defined rules), pedestrians and animals has an amazing fluidity amidst the incredible sound of horns, garbage and business activity.

After a 20-minute wait Peter Abreo, who is the administrative director at the Bangalore School of Music, picked me up.  We drove directly to the School where Aruna Sanderlal, the school founder and director was waiting.   After introductions, food and tea we had a meeting with the 5 guitar teachers to set up my teaching schedule.  The result was that from Friday thru the following Tuesday, I would be spending 4 days teaching master classes and private lessons for around 4 hours each day.  On Friday evening, March 5 I would also be performing a concert in the school auditorium.

Next Aruna Sunderlal took me to her home, where I would be her guest during my stay in Bangalore.  She lives in a comfortable apartment complex on a quiet street.  Her 3^rd floor balcony overlooks an area with many trees, birds and at times, wild monkeys.  She has been living at this location for around 2 years, after selling her family home and property to a developer, who is in the process of constructing a complex of 8 condos.  As part of the deal with the developer, she will own 3 of the condos.  When completed in around a year she plans to live in one and rent the other two.  They would also be available to her son and daughter if the should decide to move back to Bangalore.  Her son lives and works in Calcutta and her daughter and family live in Washington DC where she works for an NGO.

Aruna started her music school at her old home over 20 years ago.  Since then it has grown tremendously and now occupies a 4-story building that was designed and build to house her school.  With over 350 students studying piano, strings, voice, guitar and dance the school continues to be a place of dynamic study of western music.  During my 4 days of teaching I was very impressed with the dedication, high standard of playing and musicianship of both students and teachers.  The deep interest and respect shown by all, in learning from my experience as a guitarist/musician, was a very satisfying experience for me.

My concert played to a full house of around 80 music students, faculty and others connected to the school.  Because of the short time available to arrange my concert and other scheduling problems, publicity was limited and I did not perform in a venue with greater seating.  The concert was a great success and Aruna wants me to return to Bangalore to perform as a part of their regular concert series.  During my travels so far there has been interest in my performing future concerts, so a return trip to India may happen at some future time?

While in Bangalore I had the opportunity to spend time at the guitar workshop of Arul Dominic, a fine Indian classical guitar maker.  Some year’s back Arul made some significant changes in his life.  He left a successful career in politics to devote himself to the full time profession of guitar maker.  A shift from doing intellectual work to hand made labor is very rare in India.  He made 2 extensive trips northern California where he worked and studied in the shops of various well-known guitar makers.  On returning to India he now sells his high priced instruments with success and has many plans for expanding his business.  A big group of local guitarists showed up at his workshop and we had a great time playing for each other.  Afterwards we continued our socializing at a local restaurant with much food and drink.  (Photos of the workshop will be available on my Picasa site)

Another interesting event was going out with a small group from the music school to a local nightclub that features live music.  I was looking forward to hearing some Indian jazz musicians, but it turned out the entertainment that night was provided by a rock group who played standard cover tunes.  They were quite good, but were very loud, and unfortunately did almost no improvisation.  I had my guitar with me and after their second set, I was asked to play.  I had a good time playing some of my original songs.  Most of the audience had been drinking and the noise level was high so real attention to my music was limited.  There is considerable interest amongst Indian youth in western pop culture.  I have been told that within large segments of the young urban middle class there is a decline of interest in traditional Indian artistic culture.  At the same time many of the defining aspects of Indian culture such as marriage, caste and close family ties still maintain great strength throughout the culture.  As my interactions with many Indians continue to grow in number and depth I gradually feel I am coming to a greater understanding of this deep and complex culture.

My stay with Aruna was wonderful.  She told me before my leaving that I was the first visiting musician that she had invited to stay at her home.  We got along well and had many discussions about our lives and views.  She did so much to make my stay in Bangalore comfortable and full.

On Wednesday, March 10 I took a 3-hour train ride from Bangalore to Mysore.  It was a beautiful trip passing through miles of rice fields and coconut groves.  I was scheduled to performing a concert on the coming Friday at the “India Song House”.  At 5:30pm Jan Brouwer, who organizes concerts of classical western music in Mysore, met me at the Mysore train station riding his motorcycle.  Jan, who is 50, has lived in India for 25 years, is of Dutch decent, is married to Indian women, and has 2 children.  Unable to carry my baggage and me on his motorcycle, he hired an auto-rickshaw for me.  With him in lead we headed to the “Indian Song House” where he informed me I would be staying.

My arrival there was the beginning of a great 12-day adventure.  Shoaib Chadkhan lives in this beautiful old house (see photos) and is in the process of developing the location as an art and music center.  Shoaib and I immediately felt a kinship and over my stay became good friends.  He is 30 years old, grew up in Mysore in a large family and is partners with his 2 older brothers in a fabric store that has been in the family for generations.  While I was there he spent little time at the store, even though he plays a vital role in their successful business.  Over the past few months he has been putting considerable energy into developing his interest in the arts, both as a collector and promoter.  His open communication skills, strong business sense, responsibility and generous spirit will all contribute towards success in his future projects.

Shortly after my arrival he spent many hours in preparing for the Friday night opening of a one-man art show.  My concert was scheduled for the same night, so we also spent time planning that event.  It was wonderful to see his living space and outside grounds quickly and efficiently transformed into a beautiful gallery and concert venue.

Inside workers from his business came and helped clean the place from top to bottom.  The artist, Barath, spent 2 days with Shoaib hanging the paintings.  Electricians came and installed lighting for painting display.  By Friday noon all was ready for the 5:00pm opening.

Outside, the large yard area surrounding the house was cleaned and made beautiful.  Bougainvillea, mango, coconut, breadfruit, papaya trees, flowering bushes, surround the house and open spaces.  Shoaib and I decided on the final details of setup for my performance, which was held by an outside porch area, under huge mango and palm trees.  Chairs and mats were placed around the area in sufficient quantity to accommodate an audience of around 70.  Incense sticks were placed around for atmosphere and to help keep away mosquitoes.  On Friday morning women from his store brought large baskets of flowers to line all the pathways, building ledges and steps.  Intricate traditional Indian designs were created with white chalk. In two days of thoughtful work this lovely house and grounds were transformed into a place of great beauty.

I spent most of Friday afternoon in guitar practice in preparation for the concert.  By 6:00pm the house and grounds were full of people who came to view the show and concert.  Shoaib had arranged considerable newspaper publicity for the art opening.  I dressed in my new Indian embroidered silk shirt and traditional white cotton Indian pants that I had received as a departing gift from the guitar faculty at the Bangalore School of Music.   I began my performance with the audience sitting on chairs and mats.  The atmosphere was beautiful with burning incense and candlelight, as dusk settled into night.  I enjoyed performing and the audience loved the event.

After performing I spent around an hour greeting and meeting people.  Then Jan Brouwer, who had arranged my concert, took Shoaib, Praveer (a friend of Shoaib’s visiting from Delhi), myself, his wife and 12-year-old son and others from the Mysore Concert Society to the Mysore Sports Club where he is a member.  Dating from the colonial period, clubs of this type are now used by wealthy Indians as a social gathering place for family and friends.  We sat outside and had a good meal.  I enjoyed talking with some Indian Concert Society members who have traveled extensively outside India.

Back home at the “India Song House” I spent the next 10 days experiencing many aspects of life in Mysore.  Both Shoaib and Barath have many friends who came by the house from morning to night to visit and see the show.  Reporters came by to interview Barath, as well as many Mysore residents who had seen the extensive publicity.  I spent many hours of my days and nights sitting the outside porch playing music, talking with new friends and enjoying the wonderful space.  I had many talks with young Indian artists and western travelers visiting Mysore for extended periods to study yoga at the internationally renowned yoga centers in Mysore.

My bedroom was located at the quiet back end of the house, so it was easy for me to get away from all the visitors when I desired.  I had access to an Indian style toilet and a shower area.  It was all very comfortable and my days in Mysore were relaxed, varied, informative and filled with learning and personal growth.

On my last night at “India Song House”, which was the closing day of Barath’s show, I performed a second joint concert with Harish.  For the past 10 years he has intensely studied singing in the south Indian classical style called Carnatic.  This musical form differs from the north Indian classical style called Hindustani.  Harish composes original songs in the Carnatic style while playing guitar chords to accompany his singing.

I met Harish the day after my first concert performance.  He would come by now and then.  Each time he stopped by we would spend a few hours exchanging musical ideas.  He taught me some basics of the Carnatic raga vocal style and I taught him some guitar fundamentals.  We would always play his original songs together, so when Barath asked us to perform a joint concert on the closing night of his show we were both excited.  We performed at 6:00 pm in the living room with candlelight.  I recorded the concert and will attempt to download segments onto my blog.  It was beautiful and the audience, of around 25, loved the performance.  For me it was very special, as it was my first concert with a traditional Indian musician, where I had the opportunity to complement his music with my guitar.

Harish also provided me with another wonderful musical opportunity.  On 2 occasions he took me to meet his musical guru, C.A Shridhar, who is an exceptional Carnatic (south Indian classical musician) singer and flute player.  In addition to his exceptional musicianship he has an extensive academic background and teaches at the Mysore University School of Music.  A few evenings a week he teaches private students like Harish out of his home studio.

At our first meeting I attended Harish’s weekly singing lesson with his guru.  Harish and 3 other vocal students attended this class.  He had previously contacted his guru and asked permission for me to attend.  We arrived at his guru’s home with me on the back seat of Harish’s motorcycle.  Ascending a narrow outside stairway we arrived at the second floor teaching studio.  In the room were instruments including sitars, veenas, south Indian flutes, tamboura and tablas.  On the walls were photos and paintings of historically famous south Indian musicians, wall hangings and other religious images.  The other 3 students had already arrived and Harish immediately took charge of a one hour warm up session while waiting for the guru to arrive.  They were practicing a variety of ragas and other vocal exercises.  I later learned that all 4 students had been seriously studying voice for over 10 years.

After an hour of warm-up C.A. Shridhar arrived.  A dignified man, he was dressed in tradition Indian dress with his entire forehead painted with a gray coloring.  The lesson lasted for almost 2 hours.  It began with the guru singing a phrase of a raga and the students repeating each section in unison 3 times.  The goal was for the students to follow as closely as possible all nuance and inflexion as sung by the guru.  Occasionally he would stop to comment or make corrections.  Later he gave, what sounded to me like a general musical commentary on the ragas they had been studying.  He did not speak in English.  There is a highly technical and complex musical system in south Indian classical music that takes many years to master.  It seems that improvisation work with the guru begins only after this system is nearly mastered.

After the lesson the guru and I spoke briefly and it was arranged that I would return in a few dates to attend another class and have the opportunity to perform for C.A. Shridhar.  It was my hope that the two of us would also have the opportunity to play together.

Harish and I arrived a few nights later after the class had already begun.  This class was for a group of 8 flute students ranging from age 10 to around 25.  All had been studying flute for around 3 years and were serious about their musical pursuits.  The class followed a method that was similar to the vocal students.  When the class ended an hour later the guru had each of the students introduce themselves.  While this was going on, Harish left.  After a while he returned with a basket of fruit and a large, beautiful flower necklace, which were given as a gift to me.  I then performed two selections on the guitar, one classical and the other an original composition.  With the students still present I was given a discourse on Indian Classical music and its relationship to the Vedas, Sanskrit and the meaning of Om as the fundamental source of all musical creation.  After the students left we told each other in more detail about our backgrounds and then improvised together on flute and guitar.  It was an opportunity for me to play with an exceptionally fine Indian musician and I enjoyed the experience very much.  He expressed an interest in having me perform a solo concert at the University.  We discussed the possibility of my returning to Mysore at some future date.

One day Barath offered to take me to his Art School, where he will soon be finishing his Masters Degree.  Off we went on a speedy ride on the back of his motorcycle.  The school is housed in a large complex of old buildings.  I visited beginner and advanced drawing classes, commercial art studios, sculpture work areas, print making facilities and their photography studios.  I got a chance to see the work of some of the advanced students and was generally very impressed with the high quality of their work.  It appears that the students academic training is very rigorous, but they also given great freedom to explore their personal creative direction.  Overall the commitment to getting a very good education seems to be strong with Indian students in every field of study.

One evening Shoaib took me to a party attended by western students at a very large yoga school.  It took place at the home/restaurant of a Chinese/American fellow who has a thriving breakfast and lunch business with the hundreds of yoga students passing through Mysore for a 1month to 6-month stay.  An American fellow Mickey had been helping manage the restaurant for some months.  I had not met him previously but he had attended my solo concert.  When he arrived in Mysore from the U.S., he brought along his acoustic bass guitar.  During the party we had a great jam session on the roof terrace of the building.  A few days later we got together again at Shoaib’s place and had another good jam.

Other fun adventures were an afternoon trip out to a beautiful river area lined with miles of rice fields.  I also went out to the home of German a woman who has a small bed and breakfast and restaurant around 15 kms outside of Mysore.  Her husband, who passed away a few years ago, was a fine painter who Shoaib has started collecting.  Shoaib, Praveer and I had a good German meal of homemade bread, potatoes and various cuts of meet.  On another occasion I had lunch at the home of Jan, which included a good conversation with a well-known Indian Anthropologist.  There were more outings and doings over my days in Mysore, to numerous to mention.  My time in Mysore was full, inspiring, yet relaxed.

After some thought, reading and discussion, I decided to head next to a place recommended in my Lonely Planet guidebook.  Called the “Mojo Rainforest Retreat”, it is an organically run coffee, tea, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon pepper, pineapple, and vegetable plantation.  Run by an Indian biologist couple, Anurag and Sujata Goel, the place has extraordinary beauty and harmony.  I was fortunate to arrive just as the 20 acres of coffee were coming into full bloom.  In addition to the various building used to house visiting guests, they have two large guest tents overlooking the rainforest.  My tent enabled we to capture all the surrounding sounds, sights and smells day and night.  Every morning at around 6:30, I would be awakened, in a heavy mist, to the sounds of first cicadas, then an every increasing symphony of bird song.  After doing my regular morning exercise and bathing routine, I would sit in front of my tent and continue my day in music and song.  Then down the hill to breakfast with other guests and staff.  I took a few tours of the plantations learning in some detail about Anurag and Sujata’s 20 years history and relationship to the place and land.  During the day I would spend hours at my musical studies, which over the past months have included in increased amount of time dedicated to my improvisational work.  The sounds of the rainforest were very conducive to going every more deeply into these explorations.  After dinner I would give a mini concert for the guests and staff, surrounded by the sounds of night insects.  After dark, walking home through the forest on narrow paths, I would pass a very wet area that was filling with the flashing of hundreds of fireflies, mixed with the sounds of many frogs croaking.  I would often stop to see and listen to this magic of nature.

After staying 3 days Sujata and Anurag offered to let me stay on at no cost for as long as I liked.  I ended up staying a full week.  After my second day I began teaching their 12-year-old daughter, Maya, the guitar and keyboard.  She is an energetic and engaged person and was a great student.  I also gave lessons to Arun, their office manager from Mumbai who had extensive experience as a rock and roll drummer.

Knowing that I wanted to head to the beach on the next leg of my journey, Sujata recommended that I go the home/guest house of their friends Nazir and Rosi who have a place called the Kannur Beach House.  Their home is located on a beautiful beach in Kerala around 12kms outside of the town of Kannur.  I spent a week, waking to the sound of rolling waves and morning birds singing outside my room.  Nazir and Rosi have 3 children, Soumyo (girl 21), Shalom (girl15) and Sanyo (boy12).  All 3 were just finishing up their school year, so I got to spend time with them, when they were not helping out their parents with the many tasks of cleaning and cooking for the guests that were coming and going.  Both Nazir and Rosi are from Kannur and were deeply involved in the world of computers and IT before deciding to give up that life and live on the beach.  Nazir is knowledgeable about south Indian Canartic music and he asked my to show him how he could extend his knowledge to the guitar.  We both learned a great deal from each other.  I also taught Soumyo and Sanyo guitar lessons and in trade they gave me a discount on the cost of my room.   I had great week at the beach.  My time included long days of practice, 2 short trips to town, a backwater boat trip and swimming and exercising every afternoon on the beach.  It was very hot, but when the breeze picked up one cooled off a bit.  Many showers and swimming also helped.  India is entering the full force of its hot season, which is very hot indeed.

This morning I left Kannur on a train for a 6-hour ride to Fort Cochin where I am now staying.  I have already begun making connections with the goal of setting up a concert here in around 2 weeks.  If that can be arranged, I will likely head into the mountainous Ghats, where it is much cooler.  I am scheduled to teach and perform a concert at the International School at Kodhikanal, which is one of the highest places in southern India.  I will be writing more on all these new adventures in my next blog.  Until then, greetings to all who are taking the time to read this blog entry.

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