Deeper into Delhi

"i am rich, but i like cheap." - Nikhil Thapar

".... i've learned that forgiving does not mean condoning." - Marci Shimoff, "Happy For No Reason"

India is pungent

*****

Well, i just had my first positively negative experience in India! Trying to get off at the last stop of the purple line of the Metro at Central Secretariat, and unfortunately placed at the end of the disembarking line, the flood of ridiculously impatient passengers did not wait to let everyone off the train, and the handlers at the doors dropped their arms and allowed the flood a few seconds too soon, whereupon i was literally not allowed to leave the train by the incoming wall of shoving people! This was extremely disconcerting, being bodily pushed back by blind stampeding humans, and if i had not had my hard guitar case in front of me, i might have felt even more bodily assaulted than i did.... i would have been forced back into the car by the unseeing human tide, and held hostage as the train would have taken me back from whence i had come; but some people behind me who were also in the same predicament pushed me forward from behind, using my guitar case as a battering ram, and literally pushed me out through the wall of humanity gushing inwards.... i had a vague sense of being birthed, somehow; yet this innocent awe was washed away by my overwhelming feelings of bewilderment and indignation, being unable to believe that the average metro-riding public could be as blind and dysfunctional as i had just experienced....

*****

Chelna hai, to chalo! (Come, or go!) For the rick guys.... :-D Thanks Lori!

Here i lie, in a handsome brand-new khadi kurta and funnypants, on Nikhil's sister's bed, while Nikhil argues about exchange rates with the money man who agreed to come late-evening to his house to work out his private rupees-to-baht conversion for his upcoming journey to Thailand, on the morrow.... Meanwhile, we shape up to be over two hours late to the wedding, which i have so lovingly dressed for, showering and washing my feet anxiously in anticipation of this joyous event that just never seems to come....

Jamrock Academy?
MusiQwest Academy - Encouraging exploration and expression of Music for all ages!

Important dream elements: Whoo boy.... Umm, okay, the Germans had invaded Scarborough in England, where we all were (me & my friends), and we had to get out as secretly and quickly as possible to avoid being taken complete prisoner during this new world wartime.... i tried to take Laura home with me to M&D's, and called beforehand (even though i was calling from my old room in their place!) to check in about IT; Dad was okay with IT, but the woman he was living with was really NOT okay with IT (and this was not my mom) and started making a fuss on the phone, giving her reasons why IT wouldn't be okay for her.... Later, Alan and i went traveling back through time, through some sort of subway tunnel-looking mechanism, to visit the Scarborough of the future, and found IT to be German-free and quite pleasant, and IT was a kick to see the place where we had been staying years ago, where we genially asked the old housekeeper guy what year IT was, and tipped our hand about who we were as time-travelers....

Coke Studios MTV, good source for local music styles and sounds! Thanks Parvathi, for the rec!

Lakdi ki Kathi - the wooden cart!

Lakdi ki kathi, kathi pe ghoda, ghode ki dum pe jo mara hathoda, dauda dauda dauda ghoda, dum utha ke dauda!

Bijoy, smiley owner of Furtado's Music in Delhi and bassist for Moonshine - met last year down in their music store basement.... Also met Wangdi, other guitarist for Moonshine - solid guy and solid player

Onstage Music in Lajpat Nagar, my man Martin who worked on my guitar last year! Sweet guy, go visit!

Boogeta-down, de boogety-BOP BOP - nice six

*****

Arsalan, first official guitar student! Woo hoo

.... Who wound up being a no-call-no-show on the first class.... Not very class-y!

Wow, i had some kind of a breakthrough practice tonight on the Harvey and the G3X, looping the main groove from "La Grange" by ZZ Top.... i jammed that shit for close to three hours, experimenting with licks and triplets the whole time, economy picking, alternate picking, and man! i mean, i was just in blues, mixo, and major the whole time, and was just picking, nothing fancy like sweeping or nothing, but still! i had IT going on there for a while, plus i lost track of how many different licks i tried tonight that i've never played before at full speed, or just flat never played at all! i was on some kind of experimentation fire tonight! i felt like i'm touching on competency.... Gotta keep IT up.... ;-)

"You wake up like a Mexican wave." - Paro :-D

*****

Sitting/standing up straight is a great metaphor for the internal work of realizing peace and contentment.... Some of us naturally have an upright posture, and find IT easy to maintain as IT is the standard and default; yet many of us have succumbed to our various gravities and dournesses, and move about or sit in a perpetual slouch.... For these curled folks, IT takes a conscious act of will to choose to raise up into a more upright position, and an even stronger choice to maintain IT....

In the same manner, choosing and maintaining an inner composure which clings neither to the highs of ecstasy nor the lows of despair requires some rigorous attention from most; and even riding the fine line of contentment in the middle is an art in and of ITself.... To make a choice to view the world surrounding with a small smile, for no reason at all, is akin to making the choice to raise the shoulders up and the neck back, and feel one's whole form straighten and glow! So often, we may find ourselves gliding along a track of composure, not too high and not too low; but we have a perfectly straight mouth, or perhaps a slight frown, and a sense of our surroundings as foreign or alien, no matter how familiar they might be.... This default of disconnected contentment is perhaps not inherently destructive, but IT does not produce an abundance of health and vitality, whereas the choice to rise up, be IT in the shoulders or merely in the corners of the mouth, produces a small yet profound effect upon the health, longevity, and enjoyment of our being.... Try IT sometime! Or lots of times, if needs be....

*****

Slice of India: Walking to the nearby market holding hands with Shiv, having him lead me by the hand across the street of oncoming traffic like a little boy.... :-)

Youth Parliament, collection of do-gooders that might be able to hook me up with students, says first Neha of the Monsanto march in Delhi

The world-wide March on Monsanto! May 25th of this year 2013 brought thousands of people throughout the world out to the streets to protest Monsanto's outrageous dealings in systematically-lethal agriculture; in Delhi, a brave 20 or 30 folks showed up to the Jantar Mantar to voice their wishes for organic and healthy food for the people of this land.... i held up a sign reading "BOYCOTT AMERICAN SOYA & CORN PRODUCTS", and eventually got on the crackly microphone to speak to the gathered crowd of people while Rachna Arora translated for me in Hindi.... i explained that i was a citizen of the USA, and that i would prefer to not be standing here holding a sign that asks people to boycott business with my country of origin; but that the ethically reprehensible manner in which this business is conducted by the corporations and government of the USA makes IT my ethical duty to voice my wishes and recommend that the global community cease to do business with these agricultural interests until the people who run them decide that compassion, empathy, and human health must be the top priorities in the way their business operates.... Until sanity and compassion are the foundations of the business of getting people food, i explained, i must regrettably stand here and hold this sign, because the government that supposedly represents ITs people in the USA does NOT represent ITs people in these matters, representing only the bloated multinational corporations that seek to squeeze money out of the bodies of the customers which their products disease.... For whatever IT's worth, i was proud to stand out in the Delhi heat today in solidarity with the conscious  and caring segment of our global human family....

*****

i like these rick guys who ask you what you think a fair price to your destination should be :-)

Here at DLF Mall in Saket, listening to ear-splitting metal songs that all sound exactly the same, one after the other, and quite underwhelmed by the ball-stroking wanking of Andy James, "The Shred Machine" :-/

Check out Baiju, Karnatic electric maestro who was supposed to do the "workshop" with The Shred Machine.... Probably a lot more fun! :-D

Here in this new Millennium, IT seems like facts are becoming a little softer.... "A little more giddy, a little more gay...." There's so much information available in this internet-based paradigm, and for any given piece of "info", you can usually always find some other piece of "info" which directly contradicts the first; and so one can sort of pick and choose what "facts" one wants to understand as the basis of reality, rather than adhering to the "truth" as we may have conceived IT in the past.... Hmm :-/

"Please do not befriend any unknown person." - The Electronic Lady Voice on the Delhi Metro (This is about as un-India as you can get, IMO!)

*****

This, my flesh-covered corpse

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SMS to Parvathi, morning of May 31st:

Paro, IT's insane.... i'm still awake.... WTF is going on? i knew pickling Nikhil up at the airport at 4 am was gonna be bizarre, but we're still awake and have picked up an Australian, and now we're all at his house at 5:30 waking up the whole family.... Crying babies and juice boxes.... Somebody wake me up out of this

*****

.... i just can't help IT; in my over-exaggerated mind, the Electronic Man's Voice on the Delhi Metro just sounds so, uh, suggestive!, whenever he says the upcoming station names! Like he's announcing sultry brothels to train cars full of cigar-smoking "gentlemen"....

"i turned off the fan because we are not learning guitar." - Karan Veer, the Impatient and Nonsensical (also my first official guitar student)

Just a thought; maybe this computer thing just isn't supposed to happen! What has IT been, two weeks now i've had this thing (Acer Aspire V5) without being able to use IT, because of IT coming really cheap with no OS and Ubuntu not just easily going on and working? W T F?

Slice of India: i, for the seemingly-thousandth time in my life, clog up the toilet that is in the always-locked washroom upstairs in Little Wonders.... i embarrassedly go before Mrs. Singh, the kindly Principal-Ma'am, having her lunch with the ladies, to request to use the plunger; to which she replies, "No, that's Nawal's washroom [the martial-arts manager downstairs], we never deal with IT, tell him about IT." i protest, saying no no, i'll be happy to take care of IT, may i just use your plunger? The ladies look at each other confusedly, and Mrs. Singh says, unselfconsciously, "There isn't one." In utter disbelief, i protest again, saying no no, that can't be the case, every place with bathrooms needs a plunger, to which Mrs. Singh replies, "Well we don't clean that washroom." And, afraid that we are edging further and further away from reality, i beg of her, "But you have bathrooms for the school! One here in this room, one there, one there.... You need a plunger, at least for the school, for when something goes wrong with the toilets! What happens when the toilets get backed up?" And Mrs. Singh drily replies, "The maids make do." About to lose my tenuous grip on my sanity, i take my leave, offering to buy a house plunger for the school and asking where i might purchase one; to which kindly Mrs. Singh bullseyes my balloon of reason with a last parting dart: "i'm not sure.... Ask Manoj downstairs to go out and get one for you."

Epilogue: Not Shiv's whole Bihari family living upstairs, nor Nawal, nor Manoj, knew of a plunger anywhere within a 10-km radius of the Little Wonders building, and no one generally had any idea where one might be purchased.... As IT turns out, i may be the first person in the history of the Little Wonders Playschool to clog a toilet; keeping my status and surreal streak of stopping up toilets firmly intact, numbering in the seeming-thousands and stretching out in a galactic swath of shattered white porcelain behind me, wherever i may go....

*****

So, just for once, I've like to yet a little experiment, and just see how this written paragraph turns out if I don't correct anything that the autocorrect corrects incorrectly for me as I type.... IT is hard to fathom, hersey to believe, exactly how much time and energy I have spent in producing properly-written passages with this swype keyboard on mJ phone; IT swarms as though every time I sit down to write, and try to write with some semblance of my normal, usual flow, I wind up dipping on every other word to retrace my my literary steps, as IT were, to take care of unfinished business that pops up unasked answer most visibly unwanted.... Andr just tonight, after months of silently fruiting and bemoaning my fate as am electronic writer (with occasional boys of screams and roars of frustration), IY occurred top me top a little experiment, and just leave everything a IT falls; for surely there must be some victory in at least feeling the property flute one again, and not lending thought not winkle of brow top the dreadful and leering scads of corrections that seem to fastened to my fingers linger the ponderous chains of Jacob Market, on a cold and lonely christmas eve night with Ebenezer Scrooge...

"Life is short - Don't rush IT" - Delhi anti-speeding advert o_O

Baroda and Back!

Hello Baroda!

Ba-by Shark doo doo, doo doo doo-doo!

The cast of characters on my journey to Baroda so far: Vinali, Shanth, Shiva, Bhumika, Gargesh, Ashish, Sanjiv, Auntie Aruna, Uncle Gopi, Shebhum the dedicated keyboardist, Thomas the romantic singer-songwriter, Schoen the provider of illicit booze, Sanderijn the Dutch sound guy, Ragou the loud benefactor, Ojusva the little bro, Rajinda(?) the transformational facilitator, Suwarchela the Principal-Ma'am, and Sasha the somewhat-dykey caterer (who made THE richest meal i've had in India, hands-down.... i've never had butter paneer like that, before or maybe henceforth! Damn, girl!)

Shanth and Shiva Swaroop are a pair of unexplainably charismatic brothers who live with their parents, Aruna the wonderful educator and Gopi the Astrologer Baba, in a homey apartment in the middle of Vadodara, the "Cultural Capital of Gujarat ("Baroda" to the homies), along with their good friend, the sweet and sincere Ashish, and the lovely and resourceful Gargesh, Shanth's "better half".... Shanth is a big bear of a guy in body and a tender soul in spirit, as well as a lover of all things guitar and dark-rock-style; he and i met on a train last year and bonded over guitar talk during the long train hours, forging a connection of the sort where we knew we'd be seeing each other again! His younger brother, Shiva, is the drummer of the family, and has been in the long and artistically arduous process of making a band happen for the last three years - with which i can relate! Shiva is intense and brooding, when he becomes distracted from the fun and interest life has to offer, and philosophic, curious, and wry when he's on his game.... i feel like i've met him somewhere before! One of those things.... Shanth and Shiva's family has been very welcoming and kind to me, letting me stay in their place in the air-conditioned room - along with Shanth, Arpita, and Shiva all sleeping on the floor next to me like refugees! i tried to protest, and at least give the couple the mattress, but they all vigorously declined.... What could i do but say thanks?

*****

A bleary 7 AM drag-myself-out-of-bed brought me, on the back of Vinali's scooter, to the week-long Education Workshop which she was attending, where she had secured me a special invitation as a fellow-educator.... Little did i understand that this was a Ladies' Empowerment Workshop, provided for educators to assist in the process of becoming better educators! And the bright sunlit morning found me seated in the circle sticking out like a sore thumb as the lone white male amongst 12-15 Indian females of varying ages; the workshop was conducted in english, mainly, yet several of the women spoke no english, and IT was clear to me as the all-day session went on, that the language was consistently being done for my convenience, and they had to translate important parts for the Hindi-speaking ladies, rather than just speaking in Hindi the whole time.... This made me very self-conscious and disturbed that i was creating a language-barrier in the room, purely unintentionally; i appreciated the kindness in their conducting the session so that i could understand IT, but certainly not at the expense of the comprehension of ladies who ACTUALLY WERE SUPPOSED to be there....! i quite enjoyed the content of NVC-style conscious communication and empathy being discussed, and chipped in as seemed appropriate throughout the morning and afternoon; but at the day's end, when invited to return the following day, i found myself mumbling some half-hearted semi-positive niceties, knowing that there would be no way i would be returning to the ladies' circle the next day, to which i had so kindly been invited....

*****

Oh, hanging out with Sanjiv and Bhumika is so spiritually invigorating! Everything is Maya, nothing exists, we do not exist; therefore, when we speak to each other, we don't really hear anything, and the person speaking to us isn't really there.... And neither are we! This makes for some very, very amusing interactions, speaking with Sanjiv who continually insists that he is not there....! :-D

*****

Thanks to Vinali and her "Sacred Business Program" conference call with some honky facilitator dude in the States, i had the opportunity tonight (in guided conference-call meditation) to meet my future self from twenty years down the line, somewhere out on a stone bench in a forest clearing.... Future Me was wearing a yellow-with-brown designs trippy shirt, and had graying beard and dreds shot through with gray hanging down my future back; we hung out together in silence very comfortably for a little bit, enjoying the paradoxical weirdness of the moment.... Finally, i asked myself the only question that i was interested in asking: "So.... Did we ever get IT all figured out?" And i responded, "Are you kidding me?" with a wry grin.... i chuckled and we ruminated on this for a minute, while the very white facilitator dude tinnily tapped on his shamanic drum, somewhere far away inside the phone.... i turned back over to continue the conversation with myself, JUST AS the self-styled shamanic sacred-business facilitator started whiningly chanting some sort of pseudo-native-American "hey-yuh-hi-yuh-hey-yuh-wah-wah", so loudly and gratingly that any further conversation proved impossible; we looked at each other sardonically, shaking our heads and smiling, as we both silently agreed that the facilitator dude was preventing the very interaction that he was supposed to be facilitating.... The image reminded us of two lovers in a gorgeous Italian restaurant, on a romantic date, and the guy is about to propose marriage to the girl, when an oblivious violin player saunters up to the table to play a romantic violin solo for the budding lovers, and plays so loud and long that IT becomes a tragicomedy, never leaving the table, and never opening his eyes to see the disgusted looks on the faces of the terminally-bored couple.... By the time our facilitator stopped giving IT his best ooga-ooga, he was meditatively-guiding us out of the forest, thanking our future selves for showing up and talking to us.... i and i threw each other a last humorous smile, and took our parting of ways....

*****

Here i sit, alone in the gardens of the Museum of Baroda, under the cooling shade of a tree in the hot afternoon sun, surrounded by pieces of India's archaeology standing on pedestals placed all through the garden's pathways.... Feeling blessed to be in India

Sir George Clausen, photorealistic British painter, mid-1850's? Beautiful style, look him up!

The flamboyantly gay prince of Gujarat! DammIT, i could have paid him 2000 rupees to hang out with me! And he would have shown up for dinner with an entourage and riding an elephant! ):-(

Nicholas Roerich, artist traveler and chronicler of eastern medicine and mysticism, look him up! Rec from Sanjiv

The Fun Park! Cotton candy and "popcron", The Breakdance, shooting balloons.... Fun for the whole fam!

*****

Gargesh, who manages the beautifully-styled RCA Music Academy, has kindly offered me the opportunity to conduct a guitar workshop for the RCA students as a guest instructor this week! i am honored, and excited to be able to share some education time with interested kids here in town! This will be my first instructional workshop class that i've ever held.... At the tender age of 37!

*My Musical Bio*

Nolan McFadden, from New York City, USA, has been playing guitar for 23 years, and singing all his life.... A veteran of the Antifolk scene in the East Village of NYC, and a jam-band and improvisational rock guitarist in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, Nolan has been traveling in Asia since 2011, playing for dancing people in China, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore.... Nolan has played in such bands as IT, Unbroken Chain, Dirty Water, The Penthouse Sessions, The Left Channel, Strange New Worlds, Maps Of Malta, The Moment, Conscious Sleep, Heavy Meadow, and The Spicy Tacos; and in Thailand, The Wakefield-McFadden Acoustic Duo, and the authentic latin sound of Los Puentes (The Bridges)! He lists his main influences as the Sun and the Moon, and dreams of flying around the world in a hot-air balloon with nothing but his guitar and his Taro cards!

Here's links to some of Nolan's music online: www.myspace.com/themomentmusical
www.soundcloud.com/nolan-mcfadden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8313g0NghQ (Los Puentes demo video)

Syllabus for my RCA Guitar Workshop:

1) Intro of self - Storytime!
2) Main components of musical direction: Covers/Songwriting/Improvisation....Examples!
3) Solo playing & Group music - Pros & Cons
4) Live examples of Solo vs. Group
5) Practice & Motivation - FUN and Make IT Fun! And - What Do You Want To Do?
6) Applying Practice to Performance - Integration!
7) Reading The Audience / Professional Listening
8) Being an Artist!
9) Q & A

So much for planning! The actual workshop was, uh, a bit different than i had expected; i had imagined a room with five to ten teenage kids, where i would have the chance to get to know the attendees a little bit, ask them some questions and let them ask me some as well during the course of the workshop.... Talk about my life, show them things on the guitar in which they might be interested.... However, the reality rearing ITs head was a lot of chairs set up in the big main lobby area at RCA, and eventually, a packed room of maybe thirty people, all of ages from six or seven up through older folks, and me at the front commanding the space from a chair behind my guitar! Both the guitar and my mic were being run through a PA, which had terrible sound for the guitar, and even Sanderijn the happy Dutch sound engineer could do nothing to save my sound.... The two-hour workshop was a minor nightmare for me, as the lecture-style format of the room's setup was not at all attuned to my naturally-interactive delivery style, and every time i tried to get people talking or ask questions, the room would be as silent as the grave - indicating that people either did not understand anything i was saying, or were completely unwilling to engage in a public forum.... Either way, there was basically two hours of me doing a loooot of talking, and some playing of the guitar and singing, mostly as an accompaniment to my ruminations on artistry and as examples of my songwriting; during which, people seemed to enjoy the music while IT lasted, and would then return to shockingly zombie-like states during my lengthy speeches which followed....

The clock ticked on, and on, as i spoke about practice habits, musicianship as a career, and the true intent of the artist in society to an audience that seemed so planted and silent that birds should have been nesting and pooping on some of them.... A couple of intrepid teenage kids finally asked me a couple of questions during my wistful "Q&A" section towards the end, which i answered a little too eagerly, as starved as i was for some sort of human interaction.... Finally, mercifully, the clocks hands slid into the proper position, and i thanked everyone for being such a patient audience and bid everyone adieu 'til next time, where i hope the setting will somehow be more conducive to real interaction.... Afterwards, amid the handshaking and hugs, i was assured by Arpita that people had really enjoyed the talk, and were just too shy to interact or speak up (also too shy to admit that they didn't fully understand my accent and my general speech).... i thanked her for her sweet little lies, and hoped that SOMEONE had gotten SOMETHING out of the ghastly two hours; i went to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face, trying to prepare myself for what i assumed would be the easy part coming up next, the hour of performance for whoever cared to stick around....

And somehow, the sound on the PA had become EVEN SHITTIER during the break, and as i dug in and gritted my way through my songs, Sanderijn turned knobs left and right and just kept shrugging in confusion and apology in the corner of my eye, as i heard my sound go from bad to worse and back up to bad again.... Sanderijn is a pro audio tech, and knows exactly what the hell he's doing, and so once again we see the value of spending the bucks on a really high-quality system; as your shit can look as impressive as you want, but if the internals are made out of gumballs and goo, your sound is going to be shit and even the pro's pro behind the board is going to have to go home with their head hanging down.... i played maybe five songs, and was regretting going on even that far, so i apologized to the audience for the terrible sound, played my current favorite "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" by James Taylor, and departed the floor.... Next time, world, next time....

*****

Ojusva! Good kid from Baroda, fights with his parents all the time, needs big bro - met at my Baroda workshop

Handwo - Gujarati masala cake

"Prepare your anus." - Shanth :-D

Observing a couple of guitar classes in progress at RCA to get a sense of how music school is done here in India, i noticed that if i were running the show, i would have to completely revamp how these classes were being run: five kids in a room, with acoustic guitars, all in various levels of playing skill and all playing different things, so the room spins with the cacaphony of musical asymmetry.... Meanwhile, the two teachers sit on the sidelines, silent and letting the kids just kind of do their things without so much as a suggestion here or there, for the most part! Sitting on the sidelines myself, i could not stop myself from telling one of the kids i liked what he was doing, and giving a couple of pointers; one girl was doing a scale over and over pretty well, and i chirped in to show her a different scale she could try.... The teachers amusedly watched me interacting with their students, smiling at each other as if i was the naive one in the room! i felt like i had fallen down some kind of educational rabbit-hole into La-La-Land.... Now i know how NOT to run my guitar classes, anyway....!

*****

Living a choiceless life! This and many other tidbits of Baba-wisdom were imparted to me during a full-on astrological reading from professional astrologer and life-coach Jayagopi (Uncle), Shanth & Shiva's dad, down at his little office in a busy section of Baroda town.... His astrological profile of me described me as romantic, easy-going, enjoying the support of friends; having a strong physique and good at games/sports; very creative with a lot of imagination; talented in music and fine-arts skills; having had met with a few vehicular accidents and suffered a few broken relationships; and that finding my life-partner will bring lady luck to life, where although i will meet with initial marital troubles, later all will be good.... Apparently, i need to take care until Jan. 16, 2014, as my major period running from Jan. of 1996 until this nearby time in my current life comes to an end, and i should preferably go back home (presumably to the States) ASAP, to take the most care, i guess.... i'm not going home anytime soon (not that i know of!), so i'll just have to take my chances out in the big bad world! Hey, at least now i have traveler's insurance! Thanks Mom & Dad! And thank you to Uncle for a brilliant and insightful session of life-advice, compassionately and kindly given from a gentleman who clearly wants the best peaceful lives for everyone on earth! Such an honor and a pleasure to be gifted a full helping of wisdom and kindness at one sitting! Much love and thanks :-)

*****

What i say to Facebook: "An amazing week in beautiful Baroda! Full of new meetings, new family, new friends, and opportunities to share experiences, Taro readings, Gujarati food, and love! Many thanks and unending gratitude to Shanth Swaroop, Shiva Swaroop, Vinali Doshi, Arpita Gargesh, Bhumika Patel, Sanjiv Valsan, Thomas Albert, Shubham Kamat, Sanderijn Wagenvoorde, RCA Music Academy, and the folks who made me feel like family as soon as i hit town.... Much love to everyone and i can't wait to return to Baroda! ;-)"

What i say in journalling: "All in all, i took a trip to Baroda this past week to visit friends, and am now back on the Paschim Express, returning to Delhi with a new family down in Vadodara, unexpected and warm and welcoming of my bizarre musical presence in their midst (thanks to Auntie Aruna and my new Baba Gopi); when you have the kinds of friends that you can't tell apart from family, then i guess you've got family! Much love to Shanth, Shiva, Gargesh, and Ashish, along with dear Vinali, my self-conscious guru, and the solid and ever-amazing Bhumika; and in the end, the main refrain seemed to be "You must come back, and come back to stay" from all quarters, which would prove an almost-undeniable pull - if only Baroda had a music scene! But alas(?), Gujarat is a dry state, with no alcohol or bars in which to hang out or play, and there is basically no scene for western music or musicians to peddle their musical wares.... Apparently there are plenty of classical Indian concerts, if i would like to truly convert and turn the musical page over to a life in India, or Baroda specifically; yet something tells me that being somewhere with the opportunity to continue performing my schtuff is going to provide the proper environment for the blooming of my heart.... We shall see"

Delving into Delhi

Greetings and Salutations, good people of Earth!

IT has been far too long since i was able to see my way clear to posting and writing here, on this, my account of experiences out in the wide, wide world; and now i hope to return, with renewed fervor and fortitude, to the inscription of my time here on this plane and planet! My "adventures in Thailand" and across northern India last year will have to remain as yet unwritten for now, as i must simply jump back onto my present-time narrative for the sake of proper contemporaneity....

~~~~~

Wow, as i sit here in seat 17C on the IndiGo plane, waiting for takeoff out of Thailand; even as i attempt to remain scrupulously attentive to the moment, i cannot help but recall a November night shortly before Thanksgiving of 2011, not so long ago really!, when i sat in a similar plane on a similar runway in Guangzhou, unable to believe that my dreams and plans of a solo journey to India were manifesting in front of my eyes as an enmeshed and uber-dramatic partner-travel with Tiffany, who had NOT been initially booked on my plane.... Bizarre to the max

i was, as i recall, so livid and in such a shock of disbelief that i could not really process what was going on around me; only trudging forward with a hazy awareness that Tiffany and i were going to India together, whether i liked IT or not, and who the hell could know what was coming next....

Despite the relative insanity of the events which have led us all to be where we are currently, in this loopy year of 2013, i am thankful and feel very blessed to have the opportunity of a lifetime happening right now: the experience i hoped to have had a year-and-a-half ago is finally happening! i am on a plane headed (in a few minutes) to India, on my own and not particularly attached to anyone or anything, oh except for my guitars and the G3X! i'm SUPER attached to them! :-/

i have the chance to explore what is going on for me, and where the fuck i'm at, without regular minute-by-minute distraction by emotionally-demonstrative partner-people! And i get to do IT in India! Wow, I'm sleepy.... and we're about to take off.... And they're gonna make me turn off my electronic device in a minute.... Well.... Avanti! See u on da flip side dogggg

And here.... We.... Go!

~~~~~

.... i'm back!

IT's 7:00 in the morning as the sun seeps out through the soft orange polluted haze over Delhi; 400 rupees is taking me in an airport taxi/familyvan back to the only home i know here in Delhi, the Little Wonders Playschool....

Sign on side of Delhi truck: "Tool Boox"

"The drinking will continue until the economy improves" - Old Delhi man's t-shirt

- An excellent re-meet with my ol' friend Karan Jain, the Emperor of Little Wonders Playschool in New Friends Colony of Delhi; i am officially embarking (after a week of solemn deliberations to figure out what shape the whole thing should take) upon the creation of a "school of rock"-type music school, to be housed here in the Little Wonders building, adding a USP (Unique Selling Point) to the already-full array of educational ventures packed into the same place (Day Care, Spoken English, Standardized-test tutoring, Martial arts studio, Flow India educational NGO).... This opportunity is one which no one has ever afforded me back in my country of origin, and dang if IT doesn't sort of feel like the kind of thing i was wondering if i might find, out here in the big world when i started these journeys - somewhere where someone ACTUALLY WANTED me, with my peculiar skills and talents, to stay and do something really cool! And i feel SUPER GRATEFUL for this opportunity, and i hope that i am expressing this enough to Karan and everyone involved!

So now i live in the basement corner office, and when i say office i mean office! IT has a big official glass-top desk at one end, with a big black official office chair behind IT, and that's IT! i sleep on a green kiddie futon chair that folds out flat into a bed of sorts, and pack IT up every day so that IT can go back upstairs so the kiddies can take their naps on IT....

The ladies who work the preschool upstairs seem to find IT bizarre and somewhat unseemly that a ferengi is living downstairs in trippy shirts and Thai fisherman's pants, and coming upstairs barefoot every morning to brush his teeth and take a kneeling faucet shower under a rusty knobless tap in the locked "executive washroom"; yet they silently accept that their job description now includes bringing me chai and toast in the mornings, and a vegetarian lunch of any combination of potatoes, dal, red beans, okra, roti, and/or rice in the afternoons, where i generally eat with "KaranSir" in his Imperial Office and talk about the state of the world, why we STILL haven't seen "Iron Man 3" yet, and discuss how exactly one goes about creating a music school from scratch....

By day, i go guitar-in-hand and plinking away into a roomful of wide-eyed three-year-old summer camp kiddies, and wow them by making weird and funny noises, that generally (i hope) communicate the high and low sounds involved in music; they follow suit, and soon i have a roaring and raucous cacaphony of kids singing IT up as best they can, followed by some songs (i have only learned one Hindi kid's song so far, Lakdi Ki Kathi) and a little version of musical chars without the chairs, where everybody sits down ON THEIR BUTTS! ON YOUR BUTTS! Come on, ON YOUR BUTTS! :-D i do this for three different classes for 10 - 15 minutes each in the late mornings, Mon - Thurs, as recompense for my generous free housing in the prim basement office; before which, on one or two days a week, i go down in the basement common area to conduct an hour-long music class with the summer camp for Flow India, and the cute little kiddies they entertain and educate down there....

By night, i venture out into the dusty and choking air of Delhi, the metropolitan capital of India, to find out where the cool people congregate and where the live music happens.... A hard-won autorick ride, only to be had after waiting on a deserted nighttime corner in New Friends Colony (NFC) and haggling over the price with the crafty driver, brings me to Hauz Khas Village, where most of this town's fun folks and musical happenings seem to converge; the pricy nature of the nightlife ensures that only a certain, um, class of people make their way out to party the night away in Hauz Khas, and between the low-cut dresses and shiny shirts and impeccable hairstyles evident in thronging numbers on the saturday night backstreet strip, i begin to wonder if Hauz Khas is really REALLY the cool spot to hang out in Delhi.... But after several weeks of exploration, the verdict is in: you're not going to find a larger collection of artistic and cultural events all in one place, and contrived for the partying masses, even at 350 rupees for a beer with 43% taxes added to round IT out at an even 500 rupees! Never seen anything like these "taxes" ever in my ever-lovin' life.... :-/

~~~~~

Mihir, the cheesy solo acoustic classic rock guitarist from the Raasta Bar in Hauz Khas Village - come to his next cheesy solo acoustic show in Cafe 79 near Saket on Saturday at 5 pm!

Ash, hand drummer; like brother to Joy, owner of Raasta Bar in Hauz Khas Village, call him for gig May 1st!

Meraz birthday boy salsa dancer! Call him for a good time! :-D

Note To Self: Google Maps, while being super-handy and sometimes a lifesaver, is NOT the gospel of our physical reality, and is actually quite fucking wrong sometimes! Take everything Google Maps says with a grain of salt! You'll be happier for IT!

That's just how life goes! Translation: i just (while walking along a darkened parkside street in my first week in Delhi, playing around on my new tablet and paying no attention to my surroundings) fell into a giant open sewage hole, smack in the middle of an otherwise flat sidewalk.... i sprained my left foot, covered myself in diseased offal, and dropped my $250 new tab into the liquid shit.... IT is dead and i am in a state of shock, trying to head home as fast as i can, covered in smelly shit, limping, trying to laugh about the comedy of IT but too in pain and busy feeling like an idiot and an asshole to really pull IT off.... But that's just how life goes! The only positive is that my acoustic guitar that was on my back is (i believe) unharmed by the incident.... Which is really really good! Because i would probably be crying for sure if I had damaged my guitar as well in this act of complete idiocy and pathetic dunderheadedness.... Aaand upon my non-triumphant return home, i discovered that my guitar had indeed received a nasty blow to ITs bottom sideboard, and has a baby-fist sized crunch that looks gnarly and made me freak the fuck out when i saw IT.... IT isn't probably that bad though, mostly cosmetic and not affecting the playability at all.... Anyone with superglue and a will to repair can probably make IT happen....

Wow, i just remembered that in my dream last night/this morning, i learned how to levitate! IT was pretty easy, as i recall; a sort of combo of breathwork and physicality, where with each breath i took a little "oomph" upwards, sort of like yoga but going up one rung of air each time, until finally floating and dangling many feet above the ground.... Not exactly flying, but good enough, i'd say! :-)

Rumi, older richy furniture-designing lady, pretty uptight and seems like she throws down a lot of vodka at night! Nice lady, though.... Met while picking up new furniture for Karan's house

Performer's Collective in GK-2, Jack Thomas - director, go visit!.... Recommended by my man, luthier Karan Singh of Bigfoot Custom Guitars in Delhi, who is attempting to fix my axe....

Wow, i had a lot of really vivid dreams last night! A lot of running and hiding, but not the dire nightmare kind.... Heading out from a nice deck seating area at night to hide, out into a darkened waterless ocean floor, with all kinds of naturally luminescent flowering plants, and crawling around among them.... Trying to hide Tracy Chapman's dismembered body parts with Eric Hoaglund by the ocean at night, on the beach with lots of people walking around; i got her head down to the water and buried IT in the sand just before someone saw me.... Eating various fruiting parts of various cacti, as well as edible parts of other cacti.... Making a birthday gift bag for my deceased Uncle Dan, trying to keep out anything in IT having to do with Obama, to discourage Uncle Dan from smoking.... Fucking bizarre

Met Vikram from Delhi band "Philosophy Of Life" on the metro, he said find them on ReverbNation! Recommended Furtado's Guitar Shop in Lajpat Nagar

Global Music Insitute Delhi, where Adhir, guitarist of Five8 teaches

Ravi, Waiter @ Hard Rock Cafe who invites me for heavy drinking at his place in North Delhi

Surita, mom of keyboard student; recommended me to set up a young kid's music program at Performer's Collective

Shelley Delhi - super cool somewhat-squat Brit lady, working for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Delhi for eight years - met at 39 Restaurant for the Syncopation show, keep in touch for further shows!

"While i was musing the fire burned" - quote in brass letters across the fireplace mantel in 39 Restaurant in Hauz Khas Village

Wow, two winners in two nights! Last night, an original band called Five8 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Saket, great singer, players, a Miguel-Ramos-people-type named Shiv on keys, bass player Steve's birthday, guitarist Adhir may have hooked me up with a job at the place where he teaches, their jam rock originals were sweet! Then tonight, Syncopation rocked my world at the 39 Restaurant in Hauz Khas Village with their Schofield-esque original trio instrumentals.... Not often I get two improv-rock treats in two nights! Yay Delhi! :-D

Pavan Buragohain, luthier and creative director of animated film "Arjun - The Warrior Prince".... This lovely gentleman patched my acoustic so well that i just might forget what an idiot i was to fall into that hole in the first place! :-D

"Seat reserved for Senior Citizens & Differently Abled" - Delhi Metro sign

- Personal and "People" Space seems to have a very different set of meanings in India than i am used to from back home in the States.... A total stranger will think nothing of halfway holding your hand while holding onto the same pole in the Metro, or halfway sitting on your lap if you have a seat in a row of sitting people, squeezing themselves next to you into a non-existent seat-space.... On the Metro, people will cluster together as though the train car is over-filled, while bizarrely leaving a large pool of standing space empty and ignored over on the side; and when the train stops and the doors open, the simple action of people who are waiting for the train standing to the side to let the passengers off DOES NOT HAPPEN! Everyone stands directly in front of the doors, preventing passengers from disembarking, while beginning to insanely push their way forward into the crowded train car.... People who wish to get off the train have to fight their way off, through an incoming wall of crazed metro-riders, just to get off at their desired stop! And of course, if they were just let off first, there would be no need for the crazed push forward by the impatiently-waiting mob; but this particular concept and act of sanity has not yet entered into the popular consciousness, IT seems, and men in uniform enforcing space boundaries are utilized in some Metro stations to create a sane and functional space for the public on their transit..... The transit workers must grab and shove people, acting as human walls to make the crowd on the platform stand to the side of the doors, rather than right in the middle, as the train pulls in.... Enforcing actions which i have seen subway riders undertake themselves, of their own volition, a thousand times and more back in New York City....

.... Taking a short trip to Baroda for a week to visit Vinali and Shanth and Bhumika, and wow, amazing.... Somehow, i managed to forget how incredibly backward and confusing train travel is here in India! i got so used to thinking about IT as cheap and easy over the past year, that i neglected to remember the giant shoving, crushing crowds; the train numbers and track numbers that aren't posted on the big board (today's sampling showed only trains scheduled to leave at noon or one o'clock at four in the afternoon).... The one guy behind the glass at the big information booth that is talking on his mobile and paying no attention to anyone behind the window who might have questions; the many different train numbers listed on the electronic sign at Platform 5 (supposedly the correct platform, verified by both the uninterested information guy and a policeman) - none of which displayed are for your train, a mere twenty minutes before the train is supposed to leave; the throngs of sitting, standing, moving people on the platform, so many that one can barely walk around for the feet and bags and hands and heads that one may step upon or smash into if one ventures forth at any faster speed than a snail's pace - almost none of whom speak any english, and who stare in blank and silent horror if asked in english about the train schedule; the trains that pull in to the correct platform at the correct time, which some people around you then assure you is your correct train, and then upon further examination, turns out to be headed to Maharastra and would have produced a travel nightmare if you had gotten on; and of course, the eventual understanding and verification from multiple sources that your train is three-and-a-half hours late, and all the last-minute stress has meant nothing....

Epilogue: The Paschim Express to Baroda finally was changed to Platform 4, arriving four hours late and pulled into ITs slow halt followed closely by a few hundred consternated people.... i, too, followed the trail of cars, hoping for a glimpse of my Sleeper 5 car and having seen a descent of Sleeper car numbers pass me by; i lumbered down the line, through the hordes of impatient passengers - Sleeper 9, 8, 7, 6.... Luggage car? And there was the front of the train, not far ahead.... And a kindly soul informed me, no, Sleeper 5 is behind AC class, pantry car, and general admission.... As well as behind H class, B class, and Sleepers 1, 2, 3, and 4.... Aaaall the way at the back of the impossibly long train! Breathing a heavy breath and turning back around, i began my time-sensitive march through the pungent smells of urine and feces all the way back down the platform from whence i had come, and farther.... Much farther....

And so finally, the longest train walk of my life came to a merciful end, all the way at the back, with me installed in the dirty and dusty upper berth # 19, writing these lines lying on my back and needing to poop but lacking the strength to take all of my stuff with me to the bathroom so IT doesn't all get stolen.... :-/