I am writing this blog on Wednesday morning while I sit out on the little porch of the IT center on campus. I woke around 6:30 am and begin my day with some stretching exercise both in my room and outside, where I clearly hear and see the birds during their morning activities. After getting organized, I headed up the hill to campus, had breakfast, and then went over to the administration building to check out progress on my housing situation and new cell phone. Both are still in progress. I was told that I wiil not moving in Wednesday and that my new cell should be arriving in the afternoon. Ramesh Devmani is head of administration here at the college and is the person I deal with regarding all these issues. He is a very alive, warm and efficient person who I liked from our first meeting. While in his office I commented on some photos he had placed around his office. He told me that they were photos of his guru, Sai Baba. He is going to loan me a few books with Sai Baba’s writings and has offered to take me on a visit to his shrine which is around an 8 hour drive from campus. We will likely go in around 2 weeks, after life of campus becomes more regular and he has more open time. When I finally move up to campus I will be living in a housing complex across the patio from his residential home on campus. He, like many who work in administration have their family home in Pune. Many commute daily, which during rush hour takes around 1 1/2 hours. There are a few, like Ramesh who stay on campus during the week, and go home on weekends.
I then headed over to the music building and spent 3 hours in focused practice. Musically I am feeling in peak shape and I’m looking forward to my upcoming concert on Friday. Shortly before lunch a student showed up who wanted to talk to me. He is from Kashmir and wants to learn to play the blues. He has taught himself a little by listening to recording. He told me he was learning to play on an instrument that he left at home because it was too large to bring. I could not understand the name he was giving me and I thought it was because of his very strong accent when speaking English. When he wrote it out I found that he was calling the instrument a “diddly bo”. He told me that Lightin’ Hopkins played a diddly bo, which I did not know. I described is as a single string instrument that is played by some contemporary blues players. I just did a google search on the diddly bo and learned some new blues history. I love the idea that a young fellow from Kashmir, at the UWC in India, is turning me on to new information about blues history. Anyway, I gave him a half hour blues lesson on one of the schools guitars. He already had a good feel for the blues sound and by the end of our time together was beginning to sound fairly good. We plan to get together again.
Later in the afternoon I spent around 2 hours with Michael, a former student from Australia, who returned to the UWC to spend around a year working with various NGO organizations around India. I don’t know all the details but he is working with local students and others in the area as well as doing some travel. He has learned to speak very good Hindi during his time here, eats his meals with his right hand (no silverware) and dresses in Indian clothes. He is very interested in music and we have interacted quite a bit since my arrival. Since arriving I have revived my original song “Far Off Place”. Micheal has taught himself to play an Irish flute that he inherited from his father. We went out to one of the many garden areas around campus and, using my zoom recorder, recorded the song so that he could practice it. He is helping to arrange for me to perform at some of the villages in the area and I suggested that he play that song with me at those venues. It will be interesting to see how quickly he can learn the song.
After dinner I went to a lecture given by one of the math teachers on “modern music”. There were around 20 people present divided between faculty and students. I was quite tired and was drifting quite a bit. It was a full and interesting day.
Then down the hill to sleep.