Season of festivities

Sorry to all the people who wanted a new post sooner. I finally have a residence in Jalandhar. But I must say it is perhaps the nicest place I could have found. It has two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, and a drawing/dining room. Then there is the roof above which has servant's quarters. The floors are all marble. I also have a cook. He has been cooking well so far. So I am doing quite well. If anyone who knows me would like to come visit, let me know.

So about the SEASON OF FESTIVITIES.
Well first there was dushehra(du as in do, sheh as in shell and ra as in rastafari), the festival where the effigy of ten-headed king of demons Ravana from the hindu epic Ramayana is filled with fireworks and set on fire to celebrate the good conquering evil theme. I wonder if it is not the inspiration for the burning man festival in US. Anyways, I didn't see the actual thing because I had a viral fever.
Actually before that there was the fast season for the hindus. It is like 9 days of fasting but it is the kind of fasting where you can eat fried stuff and fruits so it is actually not much of real deprivation. Then on a particular days people gather little girls from the neighbourhood and feed them and give them sweets. I think the magic number is nine. But these days there are more boys than girls in Punjab so little boys are having to be substitutes. The food is great though. Dry cooked black chickpeas, a sweet halwa of suji(somewhat like oatmeal), and puris (thin puffballs of fried dough).


So anyways great food that day. Then there is karavachauth when hindu women get mehndi (see below, also known as henna) on their hands and buy new bangles and other stuff and keep a fast for the whole day where even water is not allowed and they can break the fast only when the moon becomes visible. This is done to increase the lifespan of their husbands. Some unmarried women also keep this fast for their future husbands. The most interesting thing is that even though these celebrations are of Hindu origin, many of the Sikhs also participate. Culture blends these religions. More likely people practice what their neighbours practice. Hindus often go to sikh religious places and vice-versa. Especially since religions are something of book thing for most indians. They follow the overt practices, but religion as a philosophical way of life is not how they actually practice. They are quite practical in practical matters of life and not terribly idealistic. Idealists of any kind usually don't fit in well with Indian way of life because all the contradictions are present here and all are often held up equally within the same person. They may get revered, if not ridiculed, or both, but they are not understood as practical. Anyways back to the festivities.



Today is the festival of festivals for Hindus and Sikhs. The festival of Diwali. You can read about it on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali
It was one of my favorite festivals growing up. My fun usually started days earlier when the fireworks became available. Often times we would just roam around with matches setting off fireworks or when out of fireworks making little figures of matches and paper and setting those on fire. Once we unintentionally set a whole grass field on fire. It wasn't very high grass, but it was dry and that was a lot of fun and a bit risky because we didn't want to be caught.
The memories of those childhood days are full of free happiness. The weather used to be cooler and there was much less pollution than now. The fireworks used to be small. No huge displays or anything like that. But it was a lot of fun.
Also my parents and grandparents had to buy us something for Diwali. There would usually be some article of clothing and toys. There would also be a lot of sweets. People exchanged sweets as gifts. So, we ate lots of sweet stuff. Then on the evening of Diwali we would set up and light candles, and little lamps outside the house. Then later just about everyone was outside setting off fireworks and enjoying the spectacle.
We set off our fireworks and also went over to our friends' houses and to the market to buy more fireworks. It was a great time.
So I'll check out the changes in the festival today and report back to let you if it is any different now.

A photo of our friendship.

These two little neighborhood girls were playing around me during the evening. The one in white frock with the orange borders came to me dragging her playmate and told me boisterously to take a photo of their friendship.

The changes that I notice

I am a fairly rational person in general but as I get more involved in my practice, I find myself changing where my emotional states become more vivid. It is as if art and the narcissism involved with the details in it, makes me more human. The focus turns inward and the responses to life are deeper regardless of the the emotions associated with them. Perhaps some of this also comes from dealing with difficult changes in surroundings and harmonizing with new ideas and people.
A little bit about music as well. Tabla playing is an improvisational art. It requires a great deal of control over spans of time or cycles. This part of music, for now, seems to me to be almost magical. How do you teach someone to control time? How do you learn it? It seems that for now this knowledge is part of what may be called the informal culture of tabla playing. As I develop this sense, maybe I will be able to shed some light on how to bring it into a more technical realm. Most of the tabla artists that have this ability did not acquire it by any kind of technical training but rather acquired it informally, organically. But, that requires years of being lost in the atmosphere of this music and putting that informal work into practice.
Anyways I would love to hear other people's thoughts about any of this or how involvement with art changes them.

Searching for a house

I have been having an interesting time searching for houses. Okay, so how hard could it be to find an independent apartment type rental housing. Well, first of all no such housing exists in this town. So, I asked property dealers to show me independent housing in the area. Well, most of the time they kept on taking me to a place where the access to the living area is through the landlord's house.
I asked one property dealer if he can find me a flat(apartment), he said he knows of one and he will get the keys, when I want to see it. I called him several times and his phone was switched off. Once I got through and I said I get the keys and I will call him around 4 so that I can see the flat. At 4 no one picked up the phone. So, I went to his shop and met with his son. He said he will get the keys next time and to give him a call on his mobile phone.
I set up an appointment time and called him twice to make sure he has the keys for the flat. When I reached his shop, he starts calling some guys who knows the guy who has the flat to check whether it is still up for rent. Of course he has no keys, but instead of telling me he says to follow him and he takes me to a property that was nice, but of little use to me. Then he said he will call me tomorrow when he has the keys to the flat. That was a couple weeks ago. I am still waiting.
Episode 2. Another property dealer excitedly tells me to wait a couple days while a flat becomes vacant. They show me the flat and I say okay to the price and everything else. They say they will call me as soon as it is ready. Few days go by and no word from them. So I try to find out what is happening with the flat. Apparently the owner rented the flat to someone else. But for some hidden reason, which I am working on figuring out, the property dealer never thought it necessary to let me know.
Episode 3. A lady that knows my teacher's wife tells her that her second house which is next to her main house is vacant and I can have the upstairs. Well, wonderful, perfect location, nice neighborhood. So we check out the place, I say, " great it will work. Just install the taps and install the toilet(apparently the previous stuff was stolen). She says okay and that she will get it done soon. She also impresses me with how awesome her family is and how money does not matter only good name and deeds matter. She tells me how all the chief ministers have visited their house and how her husband and her son get things done for other people without taking a dime.
Then a couple days later, she asks me to talk with her son. Her son asks me about my project and how long will I be here. We talk of rent and if he can get the work done soon, so I can move in and he says yes they will get right on it. I think their prediction was few days. But the work keeps stretching. I check every couple days whether the work has started but they say they haven't around to it.
I checked another house. Nice people but house gates are locked at 9pm and they preferred that I was rarely late and no alcohol. I can deal with no alcohol but 9 pm.

Today, I am going to go look, once again, elsewhere. I can't quite figure it out, I am thinking perhaps the commission for finding rentals is not worth the time (it's good 50-70 dollars or more depending on the rent).

Gotta keep looking....