Jan 19 - A happy day of contrasts and shades of grey…

the picture has to do with the second story!

story 1 

Today was a good day because it has broken the dialect of black and white, rich and poor, Brahmin and dalit in my mind. As a mostly ignorant foreigner this is what I see: Brahmins have money, pursue nice things: spirituality, education, music, and live in clean houses. The rest of the city cleans their houses, and their garbage, and their sewage, makes their clothes, builds their houses, guards their houses, drives them around, harvests their food ect. Many of these jobs pay barely enough money to live, and the people working them don’t have the time to think about nice things like music, and education. This is an extreme and dangerous view especially considering that all my friends here are Brahmins, and I certainly don’t think that they are bad people. I’m also not saying I’m any better for being Canadian. There is plenty of exploitation of poor people in Canada, but it’s not in your face. The poor people who work for Canadian’s are really really far away. They make clothes, and grow coffee plus a bunch of other stuff. Then they send the stuff far far away, and they get paid barely enough to live. It’s easy for Canadian’s to not feel bad about it because they don’t see it. It’s really hard for me to get used to seeing such massive discrepancies in wealth in the same city. I can see that things are changing all the time. Opportunity is available to the poor, but there are still many die hard things built into Indian society that are difficult to dismantle even for those with money, and an interest in making things more fair. Colonialism, piled on top of caste, followed by so-called democracy (that has it’s own special story in India), and complicated by religion has created something quite irregular and complex (not something I can even begin to understand much less describe with any accuracy, but I do know that what I perceive as unfairness here often gets me down).……….Today was different. Today I saw 3 happy transvestites dressed in nice sari’s begging for money from really rich people. They begged from me. Of course I’m really rich (I’m white AND tall!). The first didn’t speak English, and I had no idea what he was saying, so another made it clear. He just said “give me money”. They seemed to be doing pretty well, and I don’t give money to beggars on principal, so I smiled, and walked on. They continued to harass me, but I managed to escape. There is a caste called sadhu for hermaphrodites in India. Traditionally sadhu’s were considered to be good luck at weddings, and around births. Hermaphrodites could also work with women so they were considered valuable laborers. In the past some poor families would turn their sons into hermaphrodites, and sell them to kings. Hermaphrodites were believed to be able to cast spells, so it is bad luck if you DON’T give them money. Apparently they still go to weddings here, and ask for money. Everyone gives it to them, because no one wants bad luck at weddings. As I walked by I watched them beg at all of the nice high-end cars. They were doing really well. Everyone was giving them good money. These guys or girls were exuberant, and extroverted. Sadhu’s are still known as a caste, but they don’t have much of a place in society any more (other than what I would understand to be some type of witch). They aren’t allowed to work in most establishments, so they have to beg. It’s not a completely happy or simple story, but these particular people were happy, and they were getting money (they also were better fed then all the other beggars I’ve seen, but then they don’t have to win pity. They have another reason for collection). It just made me realize that when you see things in black and white (ie. subjugator, and subjugated) the situation is worse. Reality isn’t like that. Another thing is that because of the beliefs about sadhu’s in Hindi culture dressing up like a woman would be a good way for a man to beg and do well, so who knows if these folks were truly sadhu. That makes the whole situation even more entertaining. The subjugated aren’t completely powerless. They have a few tricks up their sleeves. The fact that things aren’t black and white is on of the things that makes them difficult to change, but it also makes them less grim.

story 2 

Later we went to a presentation/concert at the Brhaddavani center. A Korean traditional musician named Yu Kyung Hwa has been studying carnatic music at the Brhaddavani center for the last week. She plays janggu and a modified geomungo (modified in that it is quite small). Apparently it was designed for private music as opposed to public music. She was giving a demonstration of what she learned at the center in a week, as well as a couple short solos in the Korean tradition. The first part of the presentation was a short talk explaining her intentions in studying carnatic music, as well as a little bit about her instruments. During her time here she studied with a kanjeera player (small basey percussion – looks like a tambourine), and a veena player, similar to the Korean bridge, plucked string instruments. The first performance was a short janggu solo followed by a short kanjeera solo. After that her kanjeera teacher explained the common time signatures in carnatic, and Korean traditional music. Carnatic music uses time signatures related to 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9. Korean traditional music doesn’t use 7, but uses all the others. They proceeded to play a call and response solo in 5, 3, and 4.  After studying carnatic music for almost 4 months, and studying janggu (not so seriously) for a couple months as well as some experience playing with traditional Korean musicians this fusion was extremely interesting to my ears. I think there are a lot of commonalities in the way traditional Korean players, and carnatic musicians think about time. Yu Kyung Hwa was able to adapt the carnatic time feel to the janggu very effectively (especially in the 3 time feel). I remember observing that many of the traditional Korean songs had a pulse of 3 at their core. Her mastery of playing in 3 made me wonder if this was more then a hunch. She made me kick myself for not taking more advantage of my time in Korea, and learning about the traditional music properly. Her playing in 5 was also great (really inspiring), and her smile was contagious. She is one of those performers who is exhilarated to be playing. Watching her makes you happy.

After she brought out the string instrument. She played the same basic exercises I learnt when I came here (interesting to hear on the modified goemom because I knew them, but not nearly as interesting as the janggu stuff). I guess melody was more difficult to internalize and apply to her instrument so quickly. I can’t imagine how she would have done it. I was already impressed with what she had added to the janggu. She then played a traditional Korean song, and one of her own compositions. Both were interesting. Her composition was pretty out there. It was really harsh at times. Through her translator she explained that it was about a bird flying out of the creative process (as far as I can understand). It was really great to see a Korean playing without reservation. I hate to make stereotypes, but a tendency to play with too much reservation has ruined a lot of otherwise great performances by Korean musicians for me. After she finished her performance she asked if we saw the bird. Her question was completely sincere. I think she really does imagine a bird flying out of that song when she plays it.

After the concert we went to a restaurant on the way home that we haven’t been too. The owner seemed like a nice guy. He was making his employees laugh….so different from most of the establishments here (where the employees look like different castes and act like servants). The whole day made me feel good. I’ve been feeling so bad about the caste system, and the imbalance of power in general in this city, but today I was reminded that beautiful freaks, sincere artists, and kind people will find a way to exist everywhere. Humans exist within various governmental, and religious hierarchies’ that seek to place power in ugly and unworthy hands, but beauty, and integrity finds a place everywhere.