It’s often said that India is a land of contrasts, which I am happy to confirm and illustrate. India has some of the world’s richest people and many of the poorest. It has luxurious high-rise apartment buildings, surrounded by the huts and hovels in which the servants, maids, drivers, cooks, and workmen live who take[…]
India
February 2015: If I am counting correctly, this is my fourteenth visit to India, starting the first time in 1971, again in 1982 & 1983, again in 2002, and finally practically every years since 2005 on tour with Mynta. It is very gratifying to have made so many great friends here, that my social[…]
After the hectic two days in Bangalore, we flew back to Mumbai just in time to check into our hotel quickly and then board a taxi for the grand Alla Rakha Memorial Concert. This is an annual event organized by Fazal’s older brother, Zakir Hussain, in honor of their father, the great tabla master Alla[…]
Ah, Mother India…the sensory overwhelm, the chaotic hustle and bustle, the stark contrasts, the warm people, the great food, the beautiful music…This is my twelfth trip to India, i.e. in this lifetime, according to the Hindu way of regarding lives. Some Hindus might speculate that I must have lived in India in a previous lifetime. […]
The Ultimate Festival Concert Christian and I returned to India from Nepal and immediately flew to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for a Mynta world music festival concert that was booked only a week earlier. It was called the Fusion Fiesta, which was organized by a Kokata tabla player, Tanmoy Bose. The festival even paid to fly[…]
Mynta’s third concert was a very special one in the Indian state of Rajasthan, at an outdoor stage beside a 15th century fort on top of a mountain. It was my first time to visit this part of India. Rajasthan is located on the western side of northern India, bordering[…]
Welcome to Mumbai! This tour is the first one in which I’ve bypassed Mumbai (formerly Bombay) as the first stop. I had landed in Mumbai and immediately transferred by domestic flight to Nagpur. Nagpur, in central India, was much smaller and less crowded than Mumbai. Arriving back in Mumbai and taking a taxi to the[…]
Thoughts in transit to India, Jan. 22, 2013 Long distance air travel is magic. What would previously have been so impossible as to be unthinkable is now commonplace. It was amazing easy to board a plane in Reno to travel to India via Seattle and Dubai. Traveling halfway around the world in this case means[…]