singing on March 4th

I'm losing track of what day number it is, here. We've reached the point in the trip where the days begin to blend together, the halfway point has come and gone, computer use skyrockets as people get homesick, and the well-restedness of our population dramatically increases as we all realize that malaria medication causes incredibly vivid and interesting dreams.

Singing classes, which Devon described yesterday, are becoming increasingly difficult. Luckily for Shanna, Devon, and I, the lessons become more and more rewarding as the level of difficulty skyrockets. This morning we learned how to "count" in the traditional Canartic (or South Indian) style, a system of multitasking that proved more challenging than we'd expected. This system involves slapping some part of your right hand on your knee on every beat in a predetermined system that changes with each vocal exercise. It's more confusing than probably is necessary simply because of our western mindset, which preconditions us to view the fifth finger as the pinky and the first as the thumb. However, in this system "1" denotes the pinky while "5" denotes the thumb. In addition, we also keep time with the palm and back of our right hands. The variety of hand-slapping-patterns combined with vocal gymnastics made for some interesting musical train wrecks this morning.

This afternoon we got our reward. For the first week or so we'd been learning variations on the basic scale, or "Ragam," called MayaMalava Gaula. These exercises sounded like miniature songs to us, but we still sung the notes "Sah Rih Gah Mah Pah Dah Nih Sah"as lyrics, just not necessarily in that order. Today, however, we learned our first "Gheetam," or simple song, which we were all very excited about. As Devon mentioned, we are supposed to perform something for the entire school next Tuesday, and learning a song provides some assurances that we won't be singing basic scales in front of hundreds of Indian musical virtuosos, most of whom regard us as slightly silly to begin with as we are trying to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Indian music in less than two weeks.

Regardless of the performance aspect, learning a Gheetam was thrilling in and of itself. This first Gheetam that we learned was used to praise the Lord Ganesh. Ganesh, the remover of obstacles and god of education, is the son of Shiva and has an elephant face.

The Gheetam uses a "child" raga of the basic raga we've been using. The notes in the scale are the same as the "parent" raga, yet some notes have been "cut out." Additionally, the third of the scale is present only when descending. The lyrics to this song are in Sanskrit, which our teacher roughly translated for us. Each word seems to have at least ten meanings to it, making a direct translation difficult, but the song basically lists the attributes of the Lord Ganesh, then says "I pray to you," or "Te namo namo." When our teacher sings it it sounds beautiful. Our attempts are not quite as harmonious, but we're practicing. We all enjoy singing the Indian music we're learning, but I'm not so sure our trip-mates appreciate it that much. The raga has a particular way of getting stuck in heads. The other day I caught a drummer humming the scale at breakfast, and Shanna, Devon, and I consistently dream about it.

Culturally, we had an interesting experience today when talking to our new friend and contact at the Kalamandalam here, Kaladharan (I think that's how you spell it). He's become friends with Shanna, Devon, and I, and the four of us have had tea a couple times. Yesterday, we were talking about movies and he mentioned "Borat," which he owns and has seen repeatedly. He loves this movie and was quoting scenes from it to Devon and I. We were both taken by surprise at this because, even though Kaladharan is incredibly liberal, many Americans find "Borat" offensive and we couldn't imagine it had gone over well in India, especially in the conservative area where we are staying. I guess this just goes to show that stereotypes are misleading-or maybe it goes to show that Kaladharan is incredibly cool. I tend to think both are true. We're going to find out more about Kaladharan when we interview him on Monday for our Ethnography over more delicious Indian tea!

-Juliet