August 14, part 2: My second lesson with Madame Rita and meeting Bidisha

We arrived at the Roy residence at 3:45 and were surprised and delighted to see that Rita had asked her friend and master tabla teacher, Razzak Ali, to come and be with us for my lesson. I got to sing Indian classical music accompanied by a harmonium AND tabla! How amazing is that??

Rita continued to work with me on the evening raga we had started the day before. This time she added in additional sections that normally would have been improvised by the singer (obviously I was in no way qualified to try to improvise Indian music!). I was able to pick up the melody fairly quickly, but trying to sing the unfamiliar syllables kept tripping me up. Seeing my struggle, Rita suggested that I sing the fast passages on “ah” then go back to the syllables when the note lengths were longer. I was much more successful using this tactic.

Rita was going to go on to teach me the actual words/language, but then decided she’d rather perfect the singing and forms so that I would be able to teach my students the music better instead of concentrating on language.

At 5:00 we said goodbye and Keith and I headed to a nearby neighborhood to meet Rita’s daughter, Bidisha, and sit in on a rehearsal she was conducting with a small group of children.

The children were rehearsing a short play written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941), the first non-European Nobel Laureate, on the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of his birth. The play was called “The Invention of Shoes” and the children were beautifully acting out the story in English (although this was a newly-learned language for all of them).  It was so funny to hear Bidisha tell these children some of the very things I tell my students – “speak louder”, “slow it down!”, “You can’t laugh in the middle of the play!”, “You missed your entrance” etc.

It turned out that this group of children are going to the United States soon to join children from other countries for a cultural exchange. We haven’t yet learned the whole story but the from what we were told briefly, some of these children are orphaned, while others have been removed from abusive homes. We had to leave before the rehearsal was over so we are waiting for an email from Bidisha with more information. The group is coming to Chicago next year and we are so excited to help in any way we can to welcome them.

As we left, both of us were fighting back tears. There is so much to be sad about when one looks at the extreme poverty in Delhi (or in Chicago, for that matter). But there are also people who try to do something to bring hope and a brighter future to those that they touch.  It’s heartening.

More information will follow.