I arrived at 9:15am for my final music lesson with Madame Rita Roy. Since August 15 is India’s Independence Day traffic wasn’t bad and Mintu got us there in under an hour.
Once again Mr. Ali accompanied us on the tabla and Rita played the harmonium. Since it was morning, Rita decided to teach me a morning raga – Raag Bhairavi. The raga notes and pattern mirrored the western minor scale, but, of course, with the bending of notes and ornamentation, the “flavor” was definitely Indian.
Once again Mr. Ali accompanied us on the tabla and Rita played the harmonium. Since it was morning, Rita decided to teach me a morning raga – Raag Bhairavi. The raga notes and pattern mirrored the western minor scale, but, of course, with the bending of notes and ornamentation, the “flavor” was definitely Indian.
After working on Raag Bhairavi, we went back to Raag Yamen and Rita encouraged me to improvise a little bit. I wasn’t very successful, but it was good to have the experience and now I can work on it further when I return home.
As I was leaving, Rita gave me the most beautiful letter which I will treasure!
(BTW - the gorgeous painting behind us here was painted by Rita)We returned to the hotel at about 1pm in the afternoon. Keith was quite “green around the gills” and spent the next 16 hours in and out of the bathroom. I felt so bad for the guy and really worried about how he’d be able to make the trip to Rishikesh the next day. He tried to keep in good spirits, even joking that he was “one stomach flu away from his goal weight!” How many husbands can quote the movie The Devil Wears Prada? What a fortunate woman I am J. Luckily, we came with antibiotics and by the next morning he was on the mend. We were both just really tired.
We had no idea how tired we’d be by the following evening…
Such a delightful chronicle of your journey, Brooke! Keep the wonderful posts coming!
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