Timeline since January

Hi there, champs.

This is Jamie, Navjot's wife. I've been a bit bothered by the neglected state of this blog, so in addition to finishing up my blog, I am going to add a few posts to this blog, where I will try to give some more info about Navjot's musical experiences here in India. Although it is best to get Navjot's perspective, I will work to convey his unique perspectives, though I already know I'll be including some of my own impressions too!


First, I'll give a timeline of events since January:

Late December: Navjot attended the Harballabh Festival in Jalandhar City with his friend, an American tabla student/percussionist Mike List. This festival, which is known as the oldest Indian classical music festival, has been held annually for 133 years. My impressions is that it is a little Woodstock-ish, with continuous performances day and night

October to January, intermittently: Navjot would host musical gatherings at his flat in Jalandhar. His teacher would play tabla, his co-worker at the TV Station named Doordarshan, would sing and play harmonium, and a couple other musicians-but-have-day-jobs also sang and discussed music. These boisterous evenings were accompanied with lots of chicken curry, mutton, and scotch. Strangely, these gatherings ceased after my arrival, even though I would have liked to have been part of one of these parties. I think that visiting the home of a married couple automatically brings about all kinds of proper behavior, implicitly, which put a wet blanket on the idea of these parties. Ummm....sorry?

February: We attended the wedding of a close family friend, Neha, a doctor in Philadelphia. This wedding was Hindu, and wow, there were several ceremonies, including the final ceremony which lasted until 5 am.

March: Navjot and I traveled to Calcutta to attend a Fulbright Conference. Navjot gave a presentation titled: The Role of Kayda in North Indian tabla music. He talked for about 5 minutes, then demonstrated a kayda. I recorded it and felt the presentation went very well! Go Navjot! The next night Navjot and other Fulbright artists put together a pre-dinner performance which was a hurried fusion of a North Indian percussionist (Navjot) playing South Indian music for the dancers, topped with Navjot grooving with some South-Indian rhythm-speak from an ethnomusicologist, then a great dance professor from Wisconsin danced a very good interpretation of some hip-hop 'spoken word' (read on)...and finally ended with Navjot accompanying a zoologist(same guy) who also was a hip-hop spoken-word poet. The performances were interesting and entertaining, especially since this group of Fulbrighters bonded well, and everyone liked seeing the artists shine.

After the conference we visited a few places in Calcutta, took a memorable overnight train called the Doon Express, and visited Varanasi, the Hindu/Buddhist/Muslim/Jain ancient holy city. We spent most of our time walking the ghats, or the steps to the river, and since we were nearing the Hindu festival of Holi, we got to see a festive *drink* called Bhaang Lassi, which is cannabis blended with watery yogurt. From Varanasi, we took a plane to New Delhi, then a train back to Jalandhar, and once we reached home we both fell ill: Navjot for around 5 days and me for a week and a half. Oh well, better then than during the trip!

While we were sick, we attended a performance of his Guru's at a swanky club in Jalandhar. Guruji played ghazals with his singer friend, and a few other musicians played keyboard, dhol (another drum--he was never heard) and another harmonium (?). I enjoyed the music, but the singer's stage presence put me off a little: he made a couple of snappy comments to his musicians onstage if they praised him "ki-ah bot hai" for singing well, which is SO natural for Indians listening to a good performer. I don't know why he didn't want to hear it, but he didn't, I feel, need to express it onstage in front of anyone. He didn't full-out humiliate anyone by any means....I guess I am just sensitive to this kind of thing. So much for getting Navjot's impression of this! OOPS!

April: Navjot went to New Delhi to meet a student of Abbas Khan, a tabla player Navjot is gathering a history on as a part of his grant. Navjot got a good sense of this player's style--my impression is that it is smoother than his guru's, but there is so much more than style that differentiates one tabla player from another. Navjot told me that he could not even take one lesson from this player (something we could easily do in the States, I feel) because he would have to change his "hand" or his fundamental approach to producing sound with this right hand on the smaller drum.

Another interesting aspect of this interview was the clashing of "respectful traditions" of meeting an established musician of a similar gharana (musical style) and the businessman wanting to earn money for giving an interview. The tabla player tried to combine the two in this manner: he specified the amount of 'gift money' that Navjot was already bound to bring by custom. The gift price tag was fairly hefty, a big no-no in Navjot's world. Navjot complied, but he felt (as others in our circle did) offended by this move, and he let the player know his feelings at the end of the interview.

My own thought is that one shouldn't be greedy when meeting someone who wants to make you more known in the world through scholarly means, but again, I'm looking through the glass at the ops of Indian culture. If it were Zakir Hussain, fine....because he is already known in the world, and Navjot woujldn't be doing him any favors, it'd be the other way around....but this guy isn't known world-wide, and he still chose to be greedy. In contrast, Nav did meet Zakir at the Wharton Center a year or so ago, and while it wasn't a half-hour interview, they chatted and took photos; it was a great experience for Navjot.

May: I dragged Navjot along on my trip to Himachal Pradesh. He could've left when we reached Dharmasala, but we were welcoming friends Heather Borden and Cailin Shannon, so Navjot stuck around now that we were a party. Nonetheless, we were away for 12 days, and the latter days were stressful for Navjot because he wanted to be back home playing more (he played some on the trip--he brought his tablas) and taking lessons.

Otherwise Navjot's routine is: Wake up early, go exercise with his Guru, and maybe hear a raag or a ghazal from him, then come home, sleep a bit, practice, listen, sing, practice, then return to Guruji's flat for playing and a lesson in the evening. It is more like a musical apprenticeship, but this something I'd like to write more on later.

Bye!