Indian Music Forums

Nick's back but still in India MELODIC INSTRUMENTS
Reply
1,401 posts jaan e kharabat 1,401 posts
jaan e kharabat
trippy wrote:
Povster is right if you play a komal re in Yaman you WILL be shot.

Nick

NOthing wrong in playing YAman
with komal re as long as you dont forget to call it Puriya Kalyan.

P.S. pretty lame i know, but i had to trough in my two bobs worth.
If there are just ''six tones'' in an octave [sic] then why have frets for tones that don't exist?
Reply 0 0
trippy monkey 4,281 posts
trippy monkey
Namaste & hi to all again after so long.

I’m just listening to Vilayat’s CD playing Saazgiri which I got today in Chennai. 8)

I’m glad I didn’t post this before the forum went off line a while back or I’d have to do it again. I just rejoined calling myself trippy monkey after my new 2nd pics web site
ANYWAY, back to the old travels.

I left you all in Pune as I’d just had a VERY informative visit to Tony & Shailini K. I still hadn’t got rid off that stupid cough I seemed to bring with me from England. I wasn’t to get shut of that until Hampi, but I digress. At one point I gave Tony a headache with it. I wasn’t pleased with it either, T. We both got accosted AGAIN by a bloody beggar at the station who ignored me when I spoke Hindi to him. :wink:
Leaving Pune station at 3 in the morningfor Bangalore. Is there ever a ‘sensible’ time a train leaves in India?, I arrive just before 11 the same morning & zoomed off to The Sapthagiri hotel nearby where I stayed last time I was here.
I managed to get confirmation from the Police Commisioner’s office that you really do have to leave India to renew your visa. Nice ‘pricey’ trick that. Surprised a friend, from my previous visit here, called Srinivas. He makes drum skins & is a good mridangam player.
Got a lovely breath of fresh air with a broadband connection in a tiny upstairs room near Srinivas’ shop. Little did I know what awaited me the rest of the trip regarding the most awful ‘connections’ ever. The cough managed to morph into the most ridiculous 3 tiered thing you ever heard. :roll:

I decided to try to shorten my journey time by booking a flight on the 9th Jan on my way to Sri Lanka for visa renewal. That would be Bangalore to Cochin in Kerala. I was then to take a train from Ernakulam to Trivandrum & fly from Trichy to Colombo airport in Sri Lanka. HMMMM!?!?!?

Kept getting tempted into getting More CDs/DVDs to add to my growing collection. I’ll list them all separately later on at the end. If there’s room on the forum that is.

I actually managed to find a computer capable of playing the Annapurna Devi clips on that Parriker site. Could someone give me the link again please as it went with the old forum? I couldn’t really hear them very clearly so I’d like to try where I am now. :?
It rained as I was leaving for the train. It seems there’s as many different ‘rainy seasons’ in India as there are states. Met an American pair & an Aussie/Amarican couple in the station. We arrange to meet next morning when we arrive in Hospet to go to glorious Hampi.

HAMPI Sun 4th December.
I came here 2 years ago & was totally bowled over by the sheer prehistoric beauty of the place. I got dragged off to several guest houses but settled on ‘The Netra’ which, by strange coincidence, happened to be the name of my friend Janet’s Nepalese tour guide both the last time & this when she’s in Nepal off trekking. 150 roops a night. GREAT!!!!!! As I didn’t use a stills camera last time I just went snappy-happy & took several thousand to make up. Believe me it was VERY easy due to the fabbo scenery.
I also found out the mashed potato here tastes EXACTLY like ours in the UK instead of that sweet stuff up north India. It's someting to do with the aerth they're grown in, of course. Why on earth do Indians have to put so much ‘sugar ‘n’ spice’ in everything???
I just had to put my MP3 of Jai Uttal on in my room as I went for a refreshing cold shower. We ‘discovered’ him at the Shanthi restaurant as background music as we ate. I subsequently managed to get all his albums when we got back home. Check him out, he has a web site too.
Spent quite a bit of ‘eating time’ at the Shanthi admiring all the day glow paintings on the walls there. I really will have to buy some, I thought.
Wandering along the river, I bumped into a fellow Englishman, Neil, who knew my friend Janet from 20 odd years ago when we talked about where I live in north-west England. Isn’t it strange how you meet people in India you’d NEVER meet elsewhere???? He also gave me the third of a trio of books called ‘Conversations With God’ by Neale Donald Walsch. A superb read, has anyone here read these???

After an appalling internet connection (it wasn’t to be the worst I was to later find out) I met the 2 Americans, Duwayne & Alissa, from Bangalore station & arranged to meet later. We did but in a little music ‘shop’ where Alissa had just paid 12000 roops for a tabla. My face must’ve been a picture when she told me that. After several ‘Hindi’ confrontations, they were from Kashmir( the shop owners, not the Americans), we managed to get 5 thou back. I also gave the teacher a few tabla lessons to show ‘em up a bit. Another hard earned lesson for the unwary tourist. It was a nice pair though. The tabla, not Alissa. Oh, I don’t know though. :wink:

ANYWAY!!!
We all wandered off into the hills & met a young boy called Krishna who dresses up as Hanuman to entertain we 'ferengis'. He earned himself a good tip when we parted company after a good tour.
Across the Tungabhadra River, there’s some good rock climbing to be had & so off the 2 ‘yanks’ & I went, cameras working overtime. I managed to buy my fave ‘day-glows’ from the Shanthi too, some pics of which are on the 2nd web site at the bottom of this post. There’s also a Tibetan shop there that had a set of singing bowls that I arranged to play something akin to Raag Tilang. Some sound bytes for the video camera too & off to the Monkey Temple near where Hanuman was born, finishing with an eating session at The Waterfall. Just before my new friends leave on the 10th, we have a photo opportunity on the ruins/rocks near the village. I make my travel plans to spend Xmas & New Year in Goa & suffer the crappiest internet so far. So Far I say!!
I managed to run into 2 people I first met in Varanasi all those weeks earlier too. Got some nice rings at one of the Kashmiri shops. No, I didn’t really think the jewels were what he said they were but they do look nice when I play sitar with them on. Alissa’s turned out to NOT be what she was told when she had them valued back in Utah. Surprise, Surprise!!!!!

Sun 18th Dec & I leave for Goa today sharing an upper sleeping bunk while my poor sitar had to stay on the floor. After an awful bouncing about bus journey we arrive at Goa at 4 in the morning lounging around the Café Del Mar until dawn. 3 of us stay at The Sameer. My little hut on stilts cost 200 a night with a half decent internet room nearby. Got a bit wasted drinking ‘fenny’ the local cheap brew at one point, listening to a pair of great guitarists, one of whom looked a bit like Jim Morrison. Managed to sunbathe & get a bit of swimming in too. Such a hard life here. SIGGHH!!!!! The lobsters here must be crayfish without claws as I got nowhere asking for the ‘winners’ of the lobster fights. Had quite a few ‘sea-food’ meals in Goa.
Had an 3am early morning alarm call as some silly, doped up cow set her hut on fire & woke us up shouting for her passport & money. No thought about the fact she could’ve burned us all alive as long as SHE was alright.

Xmas Eve was spent at a rave at the Cosy Nook down the far north end of the beach with fireworks & a 3am bedtime. Not bad at all. This was followed by a chilled out Xmas Day ringing friends & family.
I started doing some music gigs, with a tabla & flute player, both from Varanasi, that helped pay for my hut on legs. A good idea as we decided to meet when I go back there after new year. 8)
Wed the 28th brought a trip to Anjuna Flea Market with a fellow Brit & an Aussie girl. I’ve never been in so massive a market before with so much of the same stuff right by the beach. Lovely place.
Saw out the year playing in Siona’s restaurant & ran to the beach to catch the fireworks. Got lots of practice with Nirmal from Varanasi ready for several concerts we were due to play before I leave on YET ANOTHER bloody awful bus for Bangalore. Will I never learn?? Trying to lie down at the back of an Indian bus is NOT recommended. After a quick flight down to Kochi, picking up VK’s ‘Bequest’ DVD on the way, I decided to bypass Trivandrum when I found out the train goes to Madurai. I stop there for a few days booking my flight to Sri Lanka & back to Chennai, visiting the famous Minakshi Temple. I, stupidly or otherwise, got myself a light, smaller mridangam too. Doh!!! On to Trichy.

Nobody told me Trichy airport’s bloody well closed til 7am. I arrive there at 12.30am, of course, having to endure some yapping Indian who just couldn’t shut up for over an hour. I had to move elsewhere. Plane leaves over 3 hours late as we have to wait for a baggage connection from Dubai. Oh Great!!
Spent the time chatting with the ex-wife of the actor who played ‘Mother’ in the 60s series ‘The Avengers’. Any of you remember him or that series?
Arrrive in Sri Lanka at Colombo airport to nearly 3 days of rain storms. Nice to see English weather followed me here. :? Exchange rate very good but not too impressed with the locale. Although Sri Lankans physically look like Indians they dress like Phillipinos, as far as what I’ve seen on TV with an equally strange language mix of Sanskrit & Pali. Cheap bus rides everywhere though. Had to wait 3 days until mon as Friday was a Buddhist holiday due to the full moon. That made a mess of my traveling to Kandy as I’d booked a return flight to India on the following Saturday. I also managed to re-format my digital camera card that got ruined by a crap computer in Goa. Hooray!!!!
Found out, when I rebooked my ticket from Friday to Saturday to Chennai, that the clown at Sri Lankan Airlines in Colombo had put Trichy instead of Chennai. :roll: Main guy at the airport said it was fine though. Big sigh of relief.

Chennai
Arrive to find out my pre-booked room had been washed out due to the massive rains here so I ended up staying in the apartment/flat of the secretary of the dance school I was to enroll in, Bharata Kalanjali. He moved elswhere. I’ve managed to spend my time wandering about, re-booking departure from Delhi rather than Mumbai because, as you all may remember, I left my surbahar in Varanasi, which I’m having severe withdrawal symptoms of, I might add. That cost me ‘cos date changes aren’t charged for but departure place changes are. There’s a little warning for Emirates travellers. I also found out it would cost me an extra 150 quid to take my new sitar as excess baggage due to the surbee taking my full concession of 20kg. OUCHHHHH!!!! I was informed of several firms who would send it the following day I leave India, for less than a third of that.
A few walks on Marina beach trying to get a deeper tan ensued as well as some trips into town. Lots of classical dance performances but not much music-wise so far.
We’ll see what happens from today, Thursday the 2 february. I go to the fabbo Broadlands at Triplicane for the last 5 or 6 days in Chennai before I leave for Varanasi.

I shall mail again when I meet my friend Janet in Varanasi in the middle of Feb
Web sites once again are;

http://www.nicksitar.myphotoalbum.com

for arrival in Delhi up to Bangalore &

http://www.trippymonkey.myphotoalbum.com

for Hampi, Goa right up to Chennai & probably Varanasi.

Nick
Reply 0 0
sitarman 599 posts
sitarman
Wow!! That gets the SITAR FORUM award for the longest post ever that has absolutely nothing to do with sitar or even Indian music. Should we start posting our diaries here? No offense meant but come on guys...
Reply 0 0
trippy monkey 4,281 posts
trippy monkey
sitarman
I don't think you've been on the sitar forum very long as you don't seem to know I'm a sitarist of 28 years & have posted my ICM adventures in India since september. Hardly JUST a diary eh??

Nothing to do with sitar or Indian music? I think you need to do a little research into what exactly you think you're involved in with regards to how India's music is interwoven totally with its culture.

Oh And no offense taken.
Nick
Reply 0 0
trippy monkey 4,281 posts
trippy monkey
I just had a thought after I posted that reply. Despite the 50 odd lookins I had, is there anybody else thinks I should've posted this elsewhere or, indeed, whether I should've posted it at all.
This isn't a sour reply but an interesting point.
N
Reply 0 0
element-82 317 posts
element-82
Maybe sitarman is jealous that you are living the sitar life over there It is not like it was in someone else's thread. Fire away Nick.

Pb

trippy wrote:
I just had a thought after I posted that reply. Despite the 50 odd lookins I had, is there anybody else thinks I should've posted this elsewhere or, indeed, whether I should've posted it at all.
This isn't a sour reply but an interesting point.
N
Surbahar Dude (formerly Sitar Dude)
http://sitarplayer.net
Reply 0 0
Sitarfixer Senior Member 1,937 posts
Sitarfixer
I've no problem at all reading trippy monkeys exploits. Most enjoyable, actually. There is a connection to the subject of sitar especially if you are travelling in Hell with one. Too old to do that now. I still recall sitting in a womens compartment of the "Borivli" up train with at least a dozen instruments including a sur-bahar,a santoor and others. No room in the rest of the train for all the boxes. The looks and laughs at the stations when the platform rats looked in! All part of the "Sitar" experience!
Safe travels, your Nickness. I just picked up that 'Bequest' DVD. Consider it required viewing/listening. Magnificent! Cheers!
http://www.karaseksound.com/
Reply 0 0
Andius 84 posts
Andius
Nick,

Yeah, keep posting, I'm sure there are a lot more forum members interested in life in the birthplace of the sitar. While I am very envious of you, like sitarman, I find you exploits there of too great an interest to have any sour grapes. Keep it up!
Reply 0 0
sitarman 599 posts
sitarman
HEY FELLOW MEMBERS, AND NICK!
I'm NOT really a Grinch! Didn't mean to come off as one. Of course it's INDIA. But I could easily write a thousand words on spiritual experiences, guitar experiences, etc. that would relate, for me, to sitar and my love of ICM. Actually, very well written, Nick. Again, just my gut reaction and no offense, please. Ok. back to the Travelogue Forum (sense of humor guys...)
Reply 0 0
sitarman 599 posts
sitarman
By the way, Nick, and again I do apologize for blurting out my initial reaction after reading a very lengthy daily journal and waiting to see any info on the instrument or music- directly speaking I mean- I did read your posts in december and I am aware of your long history with sitar. My statement made no reference to any of that. I have enjoyed your posts on musical topics. Of course, ALL music is related to its culture of origin, and no- I'm not jealous of anything here. Forgive my indulgence. Kind of like playing komal re in Yaman...
Reply 0 0
povster Senior Member 2,537 posts
povster
Forgive my indulgence. Kind of like playing komal re in Yaman...

Your indulgnce is probably forgiven by most here. But forgiving a komal re in Yeman? THAT may be a bit more difficult to extract!
...Michael
Dasani - the official bottled water of ICM
Panini - the official sandwich of ICM
Reply 0 0
sitarman 599 posts
sitarman
YES, pOVSTER, THAT WOULD NOT BE AN INDULGENCE, BUT A BOO-BOO- KIND OF WHAT I WAS APOLOGIZING FOR. HEY- SOMEBODY ANSWER MY OTHER POST ABOUT "BREAKING THE RULES" IN RAAGS, WHILE WE'RE AT IT! And who turned on that caps lock key!^%#!
Reply 1 0
westsea Senior Member 410 posts
westsea
Having traveled through most of India, I totally enjoyed reading about
Nick's adventures. If anyone is planning a first trip to India, and is
planning to buy an instrument, I suggest you re-read Nick's post.
Not only do you have to know what you should be paying, but you need
to know what to do with it, after you buy it. Getting around India is no
easy task. Add a sitar to that and you have challenges that you could
not imagine. Then, getting it home is another huge problem. Different
airlines are going to have different rules and if you want to try to ship
it home, the shipping prices vary from company to company, based on
who knows what factors. The one certainty is that they're all going to
add a lot of cost to what might have been a great buy.

Nick, I went to Jai Utall's site and did some listening. Thanks for the tip.
In what I think is a similar style, you might like Bhagavan Das,
who gained fame from the book, 'Be Here Now'.
http://www.bhagavandas.com/
Reply 0 0
sitarman 599 posts
sitarman
Wow, Someone else old enough to remember "Be Here Now" ! A wonderful book. Brings back memories of my hippy days in NYC in the 60's. If only I had started playing sitar back then, but I was too busy being a local rock star! (and too stoned most of the time...)
Reply 0 0
trippy monkey 4,281 posts
trippy monkey
No probs Sitarman
As I said no offense taken. It WAS a bit long but only because I hadn't posted for a few months. The last one before I return to the UK will be much shorter. Of course there'll be a quick one to say what actually got back in what pieces.
I have some of Bhagwan Das' stuff & it goes nicely with Jai Uttal, westsea.

Povster is right if you play a komal re in Yaman you WILL be shot.

I knew it was all just a glitch in communication.
Thanks all 8)
Nick
Reply 0 0
Reply