There are two kinds of people in this world: those who say there are two kinds of people in this world, and those who are okay with the idea that it’s a little more complicated than that. I generally like to count myself with the latter group, but when it comes to the musicians of the Subcontinent they seem to fall pretty neatly into two camps: Bollywood and classical.
Bollywood music is a strange beast. You’re probably familiar with the Bollywood film industry – India’s prolific Bombay(now known as Mumbai)-based Hollywood counterpart, but you might not have known that it is inextricably tied to India’s popular music scene. All the films have a couple big music numbers, the videos for which are released a few weeks before the movie’s opening date. And it’s really the only pop music that people listen to, so much so that one of my coworkers once asked me if I had any “Hollywood music” on my ipod. Imagine if Brad Pitt had to sing and dance and in addition to acting, and that’s something like Bollywood. The songs are loud and joyful, fun, kind of stupid, and generally a good time. Pop music selection is not nearly as eclectic as in the US; at home you’ll hear the Top 20 on most places , but here tunes of a Top 5 or so drift out of any corner store radios. People love their Bollywood songs to excess. “Teri Meri” has been playing ceaselessly since the moment we set foot in India.
And then there’s Indian classical music. Varanasi is something of an epicenter for classical music – as it is for most super ancient things. Ravi Shankar, the famous sitar player and Beatles guru, was born here. There are grand musical families and lineages in the city, and a student will typically stay with one teacher – his guru-ji – as long as he learns his instrument. Concerts here are a great thing. They’re almost always free – often sponsored by a temple or some charitable foundation – and you could go to a good one more than once a week if you were that hardcore about it. Last week was a huge annual six-day festival at the Hanuman (the monkey-god) temple. Programming stretched into the wee hours all week long. It’s a nice atmosphere — scattered applause and calls of “kya bat hai” (“bravo”, in this context) pepper the lulls in the music, and if things really get too sleepy, someone in the back will inevitably raise a call of “Maha dev!” (“Great God”, literally), which gets the whole crowd kind of pumped up.
I’ve been learning sitar since the end of December from Goswami-ji. It is a deceptively simple instrument to play. There are 7 main strings and 13 unplayed sympathetic ones for resonance, but you play the melodies almost exclusively on one string with two fingers. Any composition you play is based in a scale – or raag – that does not permit any variation/accidentals (for those who want more musical explanation, here’s an interview with Ravi Shankar that explains the basics). It tears up my fingers like no other, but I’m enjoying the instrument a lot. Maxson has been learning tabla, and last night we made our Indian classical debut at our BYP final banquet. I’ll try to get a recording to all of you soon.
In Other News:
Here’s a screenshot of the Varanasi forecast for this week. Apparently this was a conservative guess, since local weather reports put today’s high at 46 Celsius, or a neat 115 Fahrenheit. It’s really hard to do anything in this weather except nap and scramble for the rare air-conditioned restaurants (though fans are a great thing too). Workouts are confined to pre-7:30 a.m. Hot dry wind and dust… I just feel exhausted from doing nothing all day. I’ve come to enjoy a lot of things about Varanasi, but our departure to the Himalayas on Wednesday is made much easier by the heat.
But mango season is in full swing, and it is a fine consolation prize. It’s a beautiful thing walking down the street with mango shake stands fifteen feet apart — how can you say no to a glass full of God’s own fruit, milk, sugar, and ice of dubious origin? (so far so good with my India-improved stomach)
This post is super delayed. Last week Daniel sent our group a semi-surreal text to the group saying “Internet is down all over India” (and this was true, for one major service provider), and since then my access to a real computer has been infrequent. So sorry for the wait, but that’s just the way things roll here sometimes. I’ll get in another post before we leave the city.
Have a fantastic Friday, folks.
—Doug
Doug Wallack 
I am so excited and happy Doug! Beautiful! I never dreamed of this. Thank you for attending Guruji’s concert and writing so beautifully juxtaposing Bollywood and Classical music. These pictures give me a great visual and are too precious! You and Maxson playing Raag Des in teentaal, Kya Baath Hai!! Ofcourse hot weather means mangoes. You are so right, that heat drains the energy without any activity, do try all the varieties (alfonso, totapari) but watch your stomach as your travelling is near. All the best for Himalayas tour! Thanks again Doug for making Guru Pandita Tripti Mukherjee’s music part of your experiences in India. Love you!
It was a really fun concert (in the middle of a huge festival). I’ve enjoyed learning Hindustani classical music. Not quite sure how it will play out in my future (ragas on cello?), but I hope to keep it with me somehow. With intermittent internet in Ladakh, I don’t think I’ll be able to post the video of Maxson and me for a while, but I’ll put it up eventually. Just finished up a jar of your mother’s achaar at dinner tonight — bahut swadist.
Thats awesome Doug, I am sure it will stay with you! Music is divine. Looks like I don’t need to worry about what to cook when you visit us, I can simply make daal/chawal/roti/sabzi. Please make sure you block a saturday evening for us when you return, dinner at my place! Don’t worry, you may not want to eat indian food for a while :), Pizza may be………
will do!