I went to this "invite only" concert last night. It was the most real experience I have had since my time in India.
I mean, everything in India has been incredibly real and super mind blowing. But this short hour and a half sitar and table drums demonstration and concert is one of my best memories so far.
I came to India to be part of the culture - to be Indian, and to learn what Indians find truly important.
Music is part of that.
This type of traditional music began as meditation - not meant for any ears or to be shown. It was meant for survival.
This isn't local bands, local talent stuff or top 40 radio music.
This is life for them. And life, for many Indians, is all about interconnectivity. They do not just make music to make music. They don't do anything in India just to do something. Everything is done with great intent and everything has meaning and makes reference to something else.
Music is like everything else - a form of meditation and salvation. It is meant to uplift and strengthen the soul. Music here is introspective, internal, and considered beautiful in all the forms in is given. It is open to interpretation, and leaves plenty of space for the musician to treat the notes as he feels. The treatment of the notes truly changes the meaning, and the possible characteristics that can be given to a single note can portray so many different things.
One important word in Hindustani and Carnatic music is "khayal," which means "imagination."
It leaves a lot of room for improv and allows the musician to really get into the music, for themself.
Our performer played a ragga for us, and before it, he told a story.
(First, a ragga is translated as "that which colors the world.")
The story: He once played a ragga for a Chinese man. Traditionally, a ragga is exuberant, lively and happy music. But when he finished, the Chinese man kept commenting on how sad the piece was.
He placed a ragga for us. It brought tears to my eyes. But these were tears of happiness and being connected, and having love for the world.
Here I was, a complete stranger in a foreign, exotic country listening to traditional Indian music and tearing up with happiness at the entire beautiful, learning situation and the amusing thought, isn't it amazing how we are conditioned by our society with our responses.
It also showed me another side of India:
India is kinda gross. I can handle gross. But I can't handle apathy. I don't know who, if any Indians are actually apathetic about the way they live, but it sometimes seems that way. Trash on the ground, animals and people dying in the streets... But I walk through this gorgeous archway into a tropical hidden garden with romantic lighting and a projection for the spread of knowledge, and I saw what I came to India for: I saw people enjoing their traditions, their music, their knowledge and intelligence. I've been seeing culture, yes. But now I have seen some of their arts, and expression.
This wasn't a life or death scene, like much of India. This was true appreciation for the arts and expression, the world and origins. These were people on the other side of the world, attending and appreciating "world music" just as much as me, and we were learning together, at the same time.
India is full of more than just things than people fighting to live - India is full of people living completely in the moment. India is full of people actually living.
This is why I am in India.
In terms of being in India, and what I expected out of India - I must have expected a lot of the things I have seen because I can't recall having actual "culture shock."
Granted, I have only been here for not quite 2 weeks, but I have seen plenty.
A week long driving tour of the northern part of India gave me plenty to be shocked about.
And I am shocked. The shock just hasn't been nearly as extreme as I thought it would be. Perhaps I am too adaptable, or maybe I don't know what to see.
But, I am a little frustrated, too.
Just like I was shocked when I was at a concert full of people who are interested in music and tradition and expression and preservaton, I get shocked at how little the people sometimes seem to care.
Perhaps that is the key to understanding what I see - I can't think of any place I have looked out and just thought, wow, this place is gorgeous. Because so far, it hasn't been. India has been a great deal of things for me - but beautiful, aesthetically, it has not been.
I do not know why, but am working very hard on understanding that aesthetics do not matter - this is a completely different thing to Indians (is it just the need for functionality?)
How do you make people care about their environment, their people, their livelihoods, their animals?
How do you make all of the difficult obstacles go away from people who appear to embrace their incredibly complicated society, and don't seem to care themselves? Then whose opinion matters?
I am not sure what culture shock is, or what all it is supposed to entail and how intensely one is supposed to feel it, but I feel ok. I don't want to be anywhere else, or doing anything else.
I just want more.
Btw, I am taking conversational Hindi.
I laugh my way through the class. I tend to find a lot of things in India pretty hysterical. I haven't laughed as much, or as hard, in such a long time. Maybe it is just the post chai glow we all get, but India makes me a very happy, laughy person.
Anyways, the funny sentence in Hindi.
--> Mai thik hu, lekin ap thik nahi hai.
Means, I'm ok, but you are not ok.
Direct translation says, "I'm ok are, but you ok not are."
My favorite combination - thik hai.
sounds like "tk"
accompanied, as always, with an Indian head nod.