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Published: January 11th 2007
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tabla lesson
Okay, so the only photos I have with me are bobs! but never mind, there's one of me with tabla so you get the picture! I;'m getting a bit sick of being ill, I was on the mend, and now I have retreated again, or got another bug or something. However, I have plenty of advice to follow, thanks for all that, so I am sure I will be fine soon enough. It sounds like varanasi is the place where EVERYONE gets ill though so I guess it's not too bad!
Anyway, Im sure you dont want to hear about that do you.
Before I forget though, bob's keeping a different blog on:
blog.eyesopen.co.uk
it's his photography blog so if you want to see super duper photos, keep an eye there.
There will be photos here too though as soon as I am able to upload some, maybe even today, who knows... Actually, i've just seen that he's put pictures of us having music lessons there, so there's me and my tabla, and bob (i took this one of course, he would have to have been an amazing ventrilloquist photographer to have taken one of himself) playing sitar.
Anyway anyway, the main problem with this blog is that I cant see easily if I have already written stuff or not, I may move it to another site at some point, so dont get too comfy. But what I was going to write was that bob had a shave a couple of days ago. I know this doesnt sound too exciting, but after much deliberation, (and much beard) we decided the chance of being infected from a shave in a barbers was slim, so why not give it a go? It was great - they thought I was a bit silly taking photos (which I'll upload another day) and wouldnt let me snap away when they actually had the blade near his skin - (I cant believe I didnt even think of that)but they tarted him up nice and proper with a face massage, antibacterial face rub, moisteriser, stinky aftershave (for my benefit) and swung him round for his portrait - that wasnt quite what I was after in a photo, but the shave was super impressive! then when bob paid, they spun round and started shaving each others arm pits.
We were chatting to my tabla guru Munna last night about marriage - he's a great source of interesting topics, whenever the lessons are over we talk about all sorts. He said he had no idea (apart from a photo) what his wife looked like until after the wedding ceremony was finished because he was facing forward the whole time. He doesnt have a love marriage, and he does fight with her sometimes, but they are generally happy, and are developing appreciation for each other. The only problem is that she doesnt really get his music. For me and bob this is a huge thing, and I'm sure it's pretty big to Munna too, but she tries to understand. She did learn tabla at school, which is a rare thing for a woman to do, so she has some understanding, but she doesnt know why he spends his entire life at the shop, playing and teaching. We went to a concert at his house the other day as his guests. THis is really common here, concerts happen all the time, and as far as I can tell, they are classical performances of around 1-2 hours, in the lobby of a guest house. People pay a donation, but the audience is usually pretty small. Munna has a guest house as well as his music shop though (other sides of the town however) and he has some great musicians playing. He also has a deal going with a korean tour guide, so there's millions of people at his concerts.
When we turned up the other day, we sat in the courtyard, upstairs in the house, with the ceiling non existent, and people sitting around the top. There was only about 4 of us, and I was thinking how priveledged this is, to see some top quality musicians at such close range, in such intimate concerts.
Then the Koreans came in.
It's really funny but it seems to be Korean holiday time, and they all travel in groups of about 15 or so. So in they trouped, gasps and giggles, and every single one of them took out either a digital camera or a video. Before anything had even begun they were off, photos of themselves, their friends, the musicians, I even caught one behind me taking a photo of the very plain wall.
One girl next to me was filming her friend with quirky camera angles, and gradually moved backwards until she was quite confortably lying on my lap - until her friend pointed it out, and she apologised profusely in a very endearing squeaky way.
I've asked Munna if he can find out if his astrologist can speak English, or if he is available to look at my chart. I told him already though that Im not interested in fortune telling as such - I dont want to be told decisively that things will or wont happen, and I certainly dont want to be told when I'm going to die, but I would be quite curious to know if there are any special things I should be aware of, things I should do to make me happy and such like. I've heard so many stories of people being told what path they should be on, and it making sense, but I'd far rather be told by someone who comes reccommended than by a tout by the ghats, who also offers marriage-you-waarner (say it and it'll make sense!)
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anthony
non-member comment
hello
Hi Kate - would they really tell you when you are going to die? I'm amazed. I'd be quite tempted to find out what they say but then it could also turn into a nightmare - espeically if they said you were going to get run over as soon as you left the building. Happy thoughts.