Yes, we were in Varanasi in February. And then we went again in November. The main justification was that our daughter Saraswati would be turning 2 in late February and after that we'll have to pay for 3 air tickets instead of 2 plus a small fee for an infant.
Yuki took lots of lessons - daily lessons in Sanskrit with Pt Vagish Shastri and lessons every 2-3 days in Dhrupad vocal with Pt Ritwik Sanyal. You can read about her blog about the trip here (you might need to use an online translator.)
Meanwhile I had lessons around twice a week with Sri Hari Om Hari, a disciple of Pt Kishan Maharaj, excellent tabla player and nice guy. I came to know him first through his accompaniment of Tahir Qawwal's Qawwali group in a concert in Varanasi. We worked especially on light classical styles - Qawwali, Ghazal, Thumri, and variations of keherva and dadra - all my weak points in tabla accompaniment. I got so much great material that will take me a while to process, but it's enriching my playing already. Many thanks to Hari Om-ji.
The rest of the time I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful daughter Saraswati, and got to see a few concerts too.
Saraswati dancing in my Guru-ji's house.
Blessings on tabla at Guru-ji's house.
Saraswati with her new special small tabla.
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First boat trip on "Gangan" for Saraswati.
On the bike around town.
Practice with sitarist Shrabani Biswas.
Performance by Devashish Dey (vocal) with Kishore Kumar Mishra (tabla), Rohan Naidu (violin) and Bhaiyan-ji (harmonium) - the first "Subah-e-Banaras" dawn concert on Assi Ghat.
On our last day in Varanasi, we got to see Pt Kumar Bose giving tabla solo in Dhamar and Teentaal. So powerful!!!
In Kolkata we were looked after very kindly by vocalist Supriyo Dutta.
Yuki took lots of lessons - daily lessons in Sanskrit with Pt Vagish Shastri and lessons every 2-3 days in Dhrupad vocal with Pt Ritwik Sanyal. You can read about her blog about the trip here (you might need to use an online translator.)
Meanwhile I had lessons around twice a week with Sri Hari Om Hari, a disciple of Pt Kishan Maharaj, excellent tabla player and nice guy. I came to know him first through his accompaniment of Tahir Qawwal's Qawwali group in a concert in Varanasi. We worked especially on light classical styles - Qawwali, Ghazal, Thumri, and variations of keherva and dadra - all my weak points in tabla accompaniment. I got so much great material that will take me a while to process, but it's enriching my playing already. Many thanks to Hari Om-ji.
The rest of the time I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful daughter Saraswati, and got to see a few concerts too.
Saraswati dancing in my Guru-ji's house.
Blessings on tabla at Guru-ji's house.
Saraswati with her new special small tabla.
First boat trip on "Gangan" for Saraswati.
On the bike around town.
Practice with sitarist Shrabani Biswas.
Performance by Devashish Dey (vocal) with Kishore Kumar Mishra (tabla), Rohan Naidu (violin) and Bhaiyan-ji (harmonium) - the first "Subah-e-Banaras" dawn concert on Assi Ghat.
On our last day in Varanasi, we got to see Pt Kumar Bose giving tabla solo in Dhamar and Teentaal. So powerful!!!
In Kolkata we were looked after very kindly by vocalist Supriyo Dutta.
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