Year-end
Excerpts
A. In Pune Again: Here in Pune I've been staying with a friend, Sarah, and attended another three-day non-stop classical music festival.
B. Pandit Anand Badamikar: At the music festival I met a very good tabla player and shared compositions with him.
C. Sadhana Village: I visited and will be staying for two weeks at this rural rehabilitation center for mentally disabled adults. The people are wonderfully unique, and the setting is peaceful and simple. I'll be teaching them drumming and rhythm, which everyone understands and enjoys in their own way. The chance to focus my energy and give from myself is exciting.
D. Mumbai: On my first trip I spent two months studying tabla in Mumbai (Bombay). I made a short trip back to reconnect with friends and places, most notably with my tabla teacher.
E. Child Relief and You: In Mumbai I visited this national organization working to provide India's children with education and health care. They directly support children while also working to empower communities and address root causes. I gave Rs. 4000 ($93) to pay for one year of education for five children.
Elaborations
A. In Pune Again:
It's amazing how little you accomplish when you spend 8-18 hours a day listening to Indian classical music. One of the highlights was sharing back rubs with Mr. Uday Jyothi, and seeing my Mumbai tabla guru, Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, perform.
Sarah and our home-cooked meal
the Pune music festival, with a really great tabla player
B. Pandit Anand Badamikar:
One of my American tabla friends, Dan, gave me a creative HKE task: to find tabla players and exchange compositions, in the spirit of sharing and connecting. He taught me a composition to share. I met Pt. Badamiker at the music festival, and he turned out to be an amazing tabla player. He has played for decades and has many students, but needs to run a clothing business to support himself. He is a Pandit, an official musical master. I told him Dan's composition, which he memorized immediately and recited back. Then he told me one composition he knew, which dealt with the same phrases and phrase structures as Dan's, but in a more complex way. I recorded the 30-second piece, and it took more than an hour of looping to decipher all the intricacies.
C. Sadhana Village:
This place is really wonderful. It's 40 km outside of Pune, in a simple, undeveloped valley of villages with one road and intermittent electricity. The surroundings are beautiful. The village is actually a collection of houses for mentally disabled adults, organized into family structures with 'house-parents' and servants that provide 24-hour care. The members (called 'special friends' in a quirky way that you just have to get used to) have a range of abilities and disabilities, but each has an internally consistent understanding of what they perceive of reality. These people aren't like children - inexperienced and unaware; they have had full lives of experiences and input, only felt and interpreted with imperfect machinery. Life in the village is a simple daily routine focused on caring and engaging these people, and trying to understand their unique worlds.
Sadhana Village is not just about these 21 folks, though. The organization has reached out to the villages in the valley (which used to avoid, taunt, or even throw rocks at the special friends), in order to spread the goodness that comes from connecting with such challenging and human people. They've gone so far as to organize the construction of 125 public toilets, women's empowerment workshops drawing over 500 local villagers, and irrigation systems. The people in the valley now accept and engage with the Sadhana village, and this is wonderful.
I'm continually looking for ways to give creatively from myself, and will be teaching hands-on drumming workshops here. Rhythm is something that everyone can understand and enjoy, and the lessons learned extend to every aspect of life. In college I took an education class, and developed a syllabus for teaching drumming like this. The challenge is not in the complexity of the drumming, but in understanding how to teach it. I visited the village for a few days, and after getting to know the special friends and leading some workshops, they really wanted me to stay. So I will, and the experience will be really great for me and them, I think.
I'll be at Sadhana Village for Christmas and New Years, and will be thinking of all my relatives and friends on the other side of the world.
some of the 'special friends' at Sadhana Village - the man's shirt says Member: Today's Generation
a view from the roof of a Sadhana Village home
D. Mumbai:
The biggest lesson of revisiting one of the most populated (16 million), hottest, most polluted, maddest cities in the world: Mumbai is my version of hell. I advise against anyone visiting. Patsy, the woman I stayed with three years ago, has moved to Goa. But I enjoyed visiting my old tabla teacher, with whom I developed a wonderfully personal relationship three years ago. I used to go every day to his home, and sit with him. He once told me, "The most important thing in determining whether or not a student succeeds is not how much the student practices, but how much the teacher loves the student." He loved me without bound, and that lesson has stuck with me. I think about it as I play the role of teacher with the mentally challenged folks of Sadhana Village.
in Mumbai (Bombay), the place where most of the city's laundry gets done
my old tabla teacher, Shripad Rajguru, with his wife and son
E. Child Relief and You:
Going back to Mumbai, I had a strong desire to help the problems that overwhelm you within. The hardest things for me are the overcrowding and the street children. This nation-wide organization has run 170 projects over 25 years, working to help children directly and systemically. They build schools and pay for education, but also educate and empower communities to fight for their rights and organize. For example, they worked in a tribal village where children of indentured laborers were forced to work. They set up schools, but also organized the laborers into a political group. Now 98% of the children attend school, and CRY is not needed because the local community organization has the power to enact the changes it needs. The way they address the larger problems and causes reminded me of Sadhana Village's activities in raising awareness in the surrounding villages, and my own efforts to include people back home in my project of connecting. I gave a donation of Rs. 4000 ($93), which was earmarked for one year's worth of education for five children. They are very open to any sort of volunteering of gifts, and have a good website: www.cry.org.
A. In Pune Again: Here in Pune I've been staying with a friend, Sarah, and attended another three-day non-stop classical music festival.
B. Pandit Anand Badamikar: At the music festival I met a very good tabla player and shared compositions with him.
C. Sadhana Village: I visited and will be staying for two weeks at this rural rehabilitation center for mentally disabled adults. The people are wonderfully unique, and the setting is peaceful and simple. I'll be teaching them drumming and rhythm, which everyone understands and enjoys in their own way. The chance to focus my energy and give from myself is exciting.
D. Mumbai: On my first trip I spent two months studying tabla in Mumbai (Bombay). I made a short trip back to reconnect with friends and places, most notably with my tabla teacher.
E. Child Relief and You: In Mumbai I visited this national organization working to provide India's children with education and health care. They directly support children while also working to empower communities and address root causes. I gave Rs. 4000 ($93) to pay for one year of education for five children.
Elaborations
A. In Pune Again:
It's amazing how little you accomplish when you spend 8-18 hours a day listening to Indian classical music. One of the highlights was sharing back rubs with Mr. Uday Jyothi, and seeing my Mumbai tabla guru, Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, perform.
Sarah and our home-cooked meal
the Pune music festival, with a really great tabla player
B. Pandit Anand Badamikar:
One of my American tabla friends, Dan, gave me a creative HKE task: to find tabla players and exchange compositions, in the spirit of sharing and connecting. He taught me a composition to share. I met Pt. Badamiker at the music festival, and he turned out to be an amazing tabla player. He has played for decades and has many students, but needs to run a clothing business to support himself. He is a Pandit, an official musical master. I told him Dan's composition, which he memorized immediately and recited back. Then he told me one composition he knew, which dealt with the same phrases and phrase structures as Dan's, but in a more complex way. I recorded the 30-second piece, and it took more than an hour of looping to decipher all the intricacies.
C. Sadhana Village:
This place is really wonderful. It's 40 km outside of Pune, in a simple, undeveloped valley of villages with one road and intermittent electricity. The surroundings are beautiful. The village is actually a collection of houses for mentally disabled adults, organized into family structures with 'house-parents' and servants that provide 24-hour care. The members (called 'special friends' in a quirky way that you just have to get used to) have a range of abilities and disabilities, but each has an internally consistent understanding of what they perceive of reality. These people aren't like children - inexperienced and unaware; they have had full lives of experiences and input, only felt and interpreted with imperfect machinery. Life in the village is a simple daily routine focused on caring and engaging these people, and trying to understand their unique worlds.
Sadhana Village is not just about these 21 folks, though. The organization has reached out to the villages in the valley (which used to avoid, taunt, or even throw rocks at the special friends), in order to spread the goodness that comes from connecting with such challenging and human people. They've gone so far as to organize the construction of 125 public toilets, women's empowerment workshops drawing over 500 local villagers, and irrigation systems. The people in the valley now accept and engage with the Sadhana village, and this is wonderful.
I'm continually looking for ways to give creatively from myself, and will be teaching hands-on drumming workshops here. Rhythm is something that everyone can understand and enjoy, and the lessons learned extend to every aspect of life. In college I took an education class, and developed a syllabus for teaching drumming like this. The challenge is not in the complexity of the drumming, but in understanding how to teach it. I visited the village for a few days, and after getting to know the special friends and leading some workshops, they really wanted me to stay. So I will, and the experience will be really great for me and them, I think.
I'll be at Sadhana Village for Christmas and New Years, and will be thinking of all my relatives and friends on the other side of the world.
some of the 'special friends' at Sadhana Village - the man's shirt says Member: Today's Generation
a view from the roof of a Sadhana Village home
D. Mumbai:
The biggest lesson of revisiting one of the most populated (16 million), hottest, most polluted, maddest cities in the world: Mumbai is my version of hell. I advise against anyone visiting. Patsy, the woman I stayed with three years ago, has moved to Goa. But I enjoyed visiting my old tabla teacher, with whom I developed a wonderfully personal relationship three years ago. I used to go every day to his home, and sit with him. He once told me, "The most important thing in determining whether or not a student succeeds is not how much the student practices, but how much the teacher loves the student." He loved me without bound, and that lesson has stuck with me. I think about it as I play the role of teacher with the mentally challenged folks of Sadhana Village.
in Mumbai (Bombay), the place where most of the city's laundry gets done
my old tabla teacher, Shripad Rajguru, with his wife and son
E. Child Relief and You:
Going back to Mumbai, I had a strong desire to help the problems that overwhelm you within. The hardest things for me are the overcrowding and the street children. This nation-wide organization has run 170 projects over 25 years, working to help children directly and systemically. They build schools and pay for education, but also educate and empower communities to fight for their rights and organize. For example, they worked in a tribal village where children of indentured laborers were forced to work. They set up schools, but also organized the laborers into a political group. Now 98% of the children attend school, and CRY is not needed because the local community organization has the power to enact the changes it needs. The way they address the larger problems and causes reminded me of Sadhana Village's activities in raising awareness in the surrounding villages, and my own efforts to include people back home in my project of connecting. I gave a donation of Rs. 4000 ($93), which was earmarked for one year's worth of education for five children. They are very open to any sort of volunteering of gifts, and have a good website: www.cry.org.
posted by Luke Wolcott at 1:00 PM
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