Pictures from Rishikesh

One of the best weekends of my life. Fuller updates to follow. Just some pictures for now.

Rush Hour in Rishikesh

Me on Holi

Tantric Temple Carvings

Tantric Temple. Musicians then Some Bestiality

Newsy News

We just got back from a week long excursion to Madyah Pradesh, a state in the center of India. First stop was visiting some Tantric temples. Much sexy time. It’s mostly a knee-jerk reaction from the Hindus to the Islam conservatism that was beginning to proliferate India at the time. They certainly don’t skimp on the naughtiness. Some of these temples have some pretty bawdy sculptures. Check out the video below.
After that, we ventured off to a tiger reserve to try our luck out on safari to see the beast in the wild. One jeep didn’t see any but I caught a glimpse of a baby tiger’s head poking out from behind a rock taking a little cat nap. Adorbs. My camera didn’t have a good enough zoom to capture the moment but trust me, it was oozing cuteness. After two days at the tiger reserve, we hopped on a sleeper train to head back to New Delhi. Indian overnight trains are really not the most relaxing environment but I managed to catch a few hours of sleep on the hard mattresses that attached to the walls with chains. Kinda felt like a mobile jail bed.
The rest of the week has been pretty packed. Hindi Midterm on Wednesday? Culture Midterm Thursday? Yup. Not to mention the final proposal for our Independent Study Project. Way to go SIT for organizing workload. Whatever. Doesn’t matter cause this weekend I’m going to Rishikesh to visit the Beatles ashram and soak up the vibes in Lennon’s meditation room. Then we get back on Monday and head out to Varanasi where I have four days of nothing but tablas lessons. Epic. More news to follow once I’m back next week!

Indie Rock (thanks for the pun Alex)

On Saturday night I got to sit in with an Indian rock band. A few friends and I were just grabbing some food on the top floor of a mall when we heard a band playing on the terrace outside. After sitting at a table with our food and listening to the band run through classic rock covers I approached the stage in between songs. I asked if I could play a song the keyboard player if I could play a song with them and he said, “Oh you wanna jam with us man? Yeah okay. What song?” We agreed on “Use Me” by Bill Withers and got down to business. I played keys and sang and the keyboard player switched to his AX-Synth keytar.
It was a sublime moment and defined everything that I love about music. The other members of the band spoke a little English, enough for me to communicate the chord changes (though there are only two ha ha). But as soon as we got into the groove of the song, there were no more words needed. There was complete understanding between the four of us. Nothing gets lost in translation when you’re playing soul music. I was totally losing it on stage with those guys. I hadn’t played live in weeks and it just felt so. Fucking. Good.
We ended the song and I shook hands with the guys and hustled off stage so they could get on with their set. I talked to the guys after they finished up to thank them again for letting some random white dude play with them. So many others in their shoes would’ve just told me to get lost. But, thus far, it stands as the most fun I’ve had jamming with Indian musicians. Video to be posted soon!