Chapter 19: In which Shantzy Pants details his run afoul of Indian government bureaucracy.

I'm sure you can imagine how much fun this was from the title. Somewhere around -3 on a scale of 1 to 10. Fortunately I am indeed writing this from my apartment so it ended successfully.

Bottom line: My failure to register with the proper authorities within two weeks of arrival. This was necessary since I was traveling on a student visa.

Constructive criticism for Indian bureaucrats: Tell a brotha he needs to register (and where).

The only notice I received from the Indian government was a half-legible, barely noticable stamp on my visa that said I needed to register.

I began my return journey in Kolkata (basically on the East Coast) then headed to Mumbai (West Coast) for my international connection to New Jersey, but didn't get any further than the customs counter. Well actually I sat in an office for a while that was slightly beyond that, ouch. They said try tomorrow to register at the address written here, ouch.
Stayed overnight with a friend of my teachers' which was pretty fun, not ouch. Was told the next day I had to go back to Kolkata to get the registration, OUCH. Returned the same day, $200 ticket, ouch. Found out the next day the earliest openning my airline had for a rescheduled flight was two weeks later, so I had to buy a new one-way back home, ouch (the ouches are clearly ahead at this point). Struggled to two days to arrange everything, was told I would get it the day after my new flight, OOUCh! I explained the problem, they said they could accommodate me, not ouch. Realize I lost my girlfriends camera in Mumbai, OUCH.

Well, the Ouches have a clear victory here. Nina's camera might be recoverable, so maybe a point will be deducted from the Ouch column.

My was great overall of course, the Not Ouches won handily in the overall competition. Hopefully I can arrange another trip before too long. Here are some more pictures from the trip:

Dustin inadvertently faces off with a Yak; Don and Mish in Sikkim; My room; My neighborhood in Kolkata; The elusive Babia Saha;

Chapter 18: In which Shantzy Pants details is venture into the foothills of the Himalayas

Hi Bloggers and Bloggettes,

I arrived back yesterday from the North where I had the rare opportunity to travel in a far away land with my Uncle Don and Cousins Misha and Dustin. They were traveling in India and so I planned my trip to overlap with them for a time. We decided to head for Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim Province, the northern end of a strip of India reaching north between Nepal and Bhutan. I found many similarities between Sikkim and Nepal, which I visited in 2008. The first similarity I noticed is the mixture and gradations of appearance between people with Indian features and people with Tibetan features. Some people looked fully Indian and some fully Asian and everyone else had some of both. As an American I’ve of course seen a million people from a million ethnic groups but the difference here is that everyone is much more culturally similar. Some people have traditional dress from different places and some people are Buddhist and others Hindu or Muslim (or Christian, or Jain, or Sikh, or…) but peoples mannerisms and expressions are rather similar. I suppose this is a product of having been mixing cultures for a few millenia.

The fam and I spent the first day around Gangtok proper, the next morning visiting Rumtek Monastery and my last day visiting Tsengo (Cheng-goo) Lake. All the driving outside the city is basically done on the edge of a cliff. We all spent some effort trying to capture a picture to give the effect of the view from your car window over the edge while the driver squeezes past a truck coming the other way, but we don’t have the skill or technology necessary to really give you an idea. So just take my word for it that its stressful. I tried to concentrate on the fact that our driver does this all day, six days a week and has been doing it for years, this kept me out of the freak-out-zone, but outside of the I’m-cool-with-this zone.

I took a helicopter back from Sikkim to the closest airport when my trip was over. The reasons were:

Cost - ~$50 The only time I’ll be able to ride in a helicopter for $50 is the next time I come to Sikkim

Skip the drive – see above

The two following pictures are of Rumtek Monastery, first from the ground and then from the helicopter.







Tsengo Lake and Surrounding mountains/valleys (Technically you can see the peaks of Bhutan in this picture but I don't know which ones)

Chapter 17: In which Shantzy Pants attempts to throw his readers a bone after not writing anything for a long time.

This photo is of myself feeling very honored to sit next to Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan Saheb, as he enjoys a cigarette before his 3:30 am vocal concert; all in his 104th year of life.



This is my buddy and gurubhai Bilal Khan, grandson of Ud. A. R. Khan Saheb.



These are my bare feet as I stand outside Dashkeenashar Temple north of Kolkata after an all night concert. Shoes aren't allowed anywhere on the grounds of the temple (as are pictures, I guess you'll just have to see it yourself). Ustad ji's concert was followed by Pt. Ramesh Misra, I had been going strong until this performance but Pandit ji began at 5:00am and I had decided to stop drinking tea so I would be able to fall asleep once I got home. I had assumed I'd be there by 7:00am but this was not to be the case. I should have had a few more cups since it would be more like 9:30. Anyway without tea I started to nod off. Well after the concert we (I had gone with Guruji. He accompanied both the musicians I've mentioned.) crammed 9 people in an SUV and decided to go to Dashkeenashar (pronounced: doh-keen-a-shar) and then have some breakfast nearby. Yes that is open pavement and yes the temple is almost fully outside. You may ask yourself "Wow, who knows what he stepped in?" Well, as a matter of fact I do know what I stepped in: Anything and everything you could possibly imagine. Hmmm. Fortunately its sacred "Anything-and-everything-you-could-possibly-imagine". Next thing is put my shoes back on, have breakfast, drive for an hour, clean my feet, pass out, then remember I was supposed to call my girlfriend at 10:00am, so go put money on my cell phone at the neighborhood phone recharging spot, find it closed and ask around a bit, then find a place, put money on the phone and leave my girlfriend a message, and hope she'll understand (she did, bless her heart).

I'm going to Sikkim in a few days with Uncle Don, and Cousins Dustin and Misha. Will post something related to that.

-Pantz

Chapter 16: In which Shantzy Pants details his neutrally triumphant return to Kolkata

Hello Hello,

I'm back in Tollygunge for more talim and riyaz. Except now I have some kick-ass allergies which have put a halt to both of those things. Its times like these that get me to wishin I played an instrument with my hands instead of with my throat. I've got some allergy pills from home and also a doctor friend here who can set me up if I run out so I'll just weather the storm as well as I can.

Here is a post I wrote a few days ago but never uploaded. Start with this and then I'll continue from there after you're finished...

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Greetings, Namaste, Namuskar, Salam Aleikum, Whats Good,

Today is Saraswati Puja, where Saraswati, the Goddess of music and learning is worshiped. There is basically a fast from any sort of studying or music practice, so now is a good time to blog, with no guilty feelings about not practicing.

I hit the ground running on this trip. Ironically when you’re busy, you do more things worth talking about with less time to do the talking. The first day was Guruji’s birthday, which included two concerts, the second of which –starting at 2:00 am- I didn’t attend due to jet lag. I’ll have my share of all-nighters I’m sure. Last year we had a few days where Guruji played 3 or 4 shows in a night and we got home around 4:00 or even 7:00 in one case.

Day two was Guruji’s annual Sangeet Piyasi picnic. Sangeet Piyasi is the charity/music organization that Guruji founded a while ago to honor his Guru, Sri Krishna Kumar Ganguly, or Natubabu to those who knew him. (If anyone would like to donate to a worthy music-related cause, get in touch with me and I can tell you more.) I went last year as well and had a great time on both occasions. This year’s picnic marked my first performance of Indian music in India and sadly it didn’t go very well. This was my first time in front of an audience that actually knew what a mistake would sound like so I got rather nervous and had a hard time remembering the words. It wasn’t the worst since I kept the rhythm and sang with good pitch but I was pretty bummed that my debut wasn’t very satisfying. Anyway, onward and upward.

Day 3 was my first lesson with Guruma in a year and a half and it definitely went better than the picnic.

Day 4 I had another lesson and then checked in with my friends Kausik (father/husband), Mithu (wife/mother) and Bhutto (son) in Tollygunge. I met everyone last trip and stayed in touch with in the interim. My friend Ehren –who is primarily responsible to sparking my interest in coming here- and his wife Camilla were also hanging out. I’ll soon be studying Bengali with Mithu, which I’m really looking forward too since I find myself pretty frustrated to miss out on so much of the conversation happening around me.

Today was puja celebrations in the morning, nothing to eat until afterwards, around 3:00. It’s a very interesting ritual including some things that are very different from Christian rituals. At one point we prayed with flowers in our hands and then threw them at the figure of Saraswati, which was actually kind of a fun way to worship. The Hindu festivals are quite different from region to region and this one is mostly just in Bengal.

I have to talk to my cousins and uncle since I met some fellow students from Siliguri –near Darjeeling, where we plan to travel- who said the Darjeeling region is prone to strikes which might leave us stranded there, leading to missed flights, etc. So we’ll reevaluate.

Peace Out!

-Shantz

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So that was the first few days, since then I've had some good practice and lessons. I'm learning a new raag called Raag Durga. A raag is a set of notes with certain patterns that generates a strong mood over the course of a performance. I learned a melody that expresses the raag and then I will practice improvisatory elaborations that further develop the mood if done correctly.

Yesterday I had my first Bengali language lesson. It went well. I'm finding the scholastic rigor of this trip rather intense!

Guruji is producing a recording now of a younger singer. Lets all wish her the best of luck!

I'm going to shoot for making a recording myself by the end of the trip, so lets all wish me the best of luck too! (Thanks)

Hasta la proxima,

-Shantz