parting from bombay...

So, we may actually be leaving this city tomorrow. (Jesse may have one more gig that would postpone our trip by a few days but in anycase, we're nearing the time to ramble...) I've had two hour long lessons this past week and i have now learned three Ragas (Yaman, Kafi, and Bhairav) and one composition in each as well as one song in Yaman. The interesting stuff has just begun and now we're leaving for a while but I have a lot to practice in order to master what I have been introduced to. I'll spend a good chunk of time practicing each of these scales while I'm gone. Music has been the main reason to stay in Bombay for so long, but even with all the craziness of this city and the heat and everything, i have already come to love it very much. The amazing thing is that it is so overcrowded and crazy yet the people seem to all be at peace somehow. the rickshaw drivers for example... if i had to spend a million hours a day in bombay traffic i would probably murder someone if not kill myself, but most of them are extremely calm and gentle people. There is a feeling here of modernity and progress in the air and the economy is booming. this makes it have an international feeling too. many tourists and business people from all over the world. there is a lot of music and film and art of all shapes and sizes. we've started to make more connections with young people living here and striving to work as film makers, actors and musicians. we are definitely leaving on a high note and look forward to come back here. unfortunately we payed way too high a price for the small room we stayed in for the past two months but when we come back we will be able to find something at a much better rate. We've also been eating restaurant food and hope to have a better alternative when we return. Apparently you can order home cooked meals to your flat. The other night this guy Dharam invited me over to meet some other friends of his. Turned out that they were all much cooler than him as he wouldn't stop hitting on me the entire night (ugh!!). So these other guys are in film, trying to push off their directing careers. Maybe Jesse will work with Atin on the music for his upcoming short film. Atin and his girlfriend, Collette, are really interesting, the kind of people with whom the conversation flows freely. Udai, on the other hand, is quite a trip, full of energy and hard to really communicate with, but a lot of fun nonetheless. They will come hear Jesse play tonight at Seijo's in Bandra I think. So, once we're out of Bombay and up in the Himalayas (or nearby) things will change and there might be more descriptive entries I suppose. Wish us luck with our 25 hour train ride across the country!