Saturday, August 1, 2009

Sob!

I am what you would call, Jack of all trades king of none. I have tried my hand at everything possible. Why? Because you get only one life! When I was small I used to play in the mud all day long, unable to bear this my parents forcibly put me in a bharatnatyam class. I 'danced' for a week and absolutely hated it. The teacher was a nutjob who said I had to tap my feet so hard that the sound should reach my house (which was 3 roads away!). So I put my bestest puppy eyes (& few crocodile tears) went and pleaded with my dad to stop the dances classes. He did :D Then came Bengali song class, I learnt those for 8 months then the teacher moved away and I had to stop. My parents thought, 'meh Bengali or Carnatic its all music' and put me in a Carnatic music class. IT WAS THE WORST MUSIC CLASS EVER! The Bengali teacher was so much fun, we learnt all kind of folk songs and it was fun to sing a new language compare this to the lame 'sa re ga maa'. If I got bored of 'sa re ga maa' the lady made us (my sis and me) sing 'ga re sa maa' yuck! I think I tolerated that for a month, I couldn't take more of that!

Then came drawing class, an old man used to come home and teach me and my friends. This went on for 5 months then he moved to a different town and end of drawing. After this was swimming and badminton classes- oh such fun! When I started working it was yoga class, which I had to stop because I had to come to swargalok (read:USA courtesy Aparna ;) ) .

I used to watch a LOT of you-tube videos when I landed here, I remember watching Hariprasad Chaurasia and thinking, 'hmmm...flute'. I enrolled in a flute class. After a whole week of just blowing air I finally got the whee sound from the flute! Then came the notes, I thought it would just be A, B,G and C. Oh God how wrong I was! There was D, E, F,A sharp, B sharp, C sharp, G shrp, A flat B flat, C flat, high A, high B, high C, high D, high E, high F, high C, low D, low E, low F phew! 2 years and 3 months every Saturday from 10 to 10.30 am, just me, Mrs. Fisher (she is 60+) and our flutes making music (or she would be making music and me sound!). Last week she dropped the bomb "they are going to increase the fees", the new amount is way beyond my budget. I have decided to stop classes. Unlike the glee I felt in saying goodbye to the dance and carnatic music teacher I feel sick to my stomach to tell her goodbye. Maybe because we went beyond just notes and Morzart. We spoke about gardening, how to shovel snow (I live in a flat, no need to shovel snow, but still!), the weather (she would know when there would be a snow storm/thunder storm) her dogs, sofa sets (crazy I know!), cough drops :P !!

The flute is mine and I can still practice at home, but it is never going to be like playing with Mrs. Fisher :(

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Goodbye Mrs. Fisher, I didn't turn out to be like Chaurasia but I will have things to say when someone talks about instrumental music.


16 comments:

  1. i had two neighbours on eitherside in chicago,both flute freaks!!

    summer days,when i used to keep my windows open...cranky noise from neighbours house...i bet the kid is getin beaten by mommie.

    HI Zack...Hi Rush
    Wats that in ur hand?
    Its a flute
    u play damn well Zack..i have heard u during the evenings.
    Thnks Rush, i absolutely love my flute
    Me thinks - play the guitar jackass, how will girls come to u when u grow up!!

    I loved ur flute...looks damn chic, wait till i get my hands on it!!

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  2. "I have tried my hand at everything possible. Why? Because you get only one life!"..amazing..loved the spirit..and about joining and leaving classes i think i am at par...ask me wat not..list will be shorter...but then ask me to exhibit a bit of what they have taught me: 0.. :D..this is me...

    but man, u play flute!!!....wow...carry on..will power and determination are the biggest teachers...so Mrs. Fisher will always be by ur side to boost the two bigger teachers in life...and if not much..u can count on my "Encouragement" too... :D :D

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  3. Oh I have tried my hand on everything too. Classical music, bharatnatyam, kathak, yoga, swimming, badminton, tennis, painting and drawing. Also learning french.

    The only thing that stayed with me was painting and drawing. And a bit of french. I wish I continued my dance lessons too, but had to move to Singapore from India, so that stopped. Sigh.

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  4. Awww, poor dear girl...its awful to let go of something you enjoyed...hope you get enough time to practise at home...but what you said about the classes, man, i have been thru a similar set, hindustani music, kathak, guitar, yoga, karate...the works !!

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  5. even i feel sad that you have to give up the classes....but am amazed at how many diverse interests you have.......i thought it's only me who can do many things...ha ha ...
    yeah you can practice with your flute everyday......

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  6. what you left mentioning is that you are a great cook, a marvellous photographer and damn damn good with knitting too..so smile !!

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  7. Mere kho darrr now after reading your great achievements..GULP! You are Jackie Chan of music and dance I see.

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  8. I think I had a pretty deprived childhood. Did not try anything except singing. I am terrified of water so that ruled out swimming.
    So may be you should upload a video of you playing some flute for all of us!

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  9. Awww. You know what, set up a knitted stuff stall at the next flea market you see and I'm sure that'll put you back in flute class.

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  10. i too i too. he, nice post. :))

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  11. Awww...u poor thing!!! Didnt know u n'joyed the flute class so much..??!! ...n I think this is the first time u've actually felt bad to let go of ur teacher :P Wow..Im sure she must have been amazing :)
    - Su

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  12. Wow!...................Oops, forgot to type....left my mouth open for too long. You learnt all that! wow! Hey being Jack of all traits is better than being the Jill who only fetched water(Confusing my rhymes/sayings here)...But yeah, you must be feeling sad to leave the flute class...here's my idea: take online flute tutions for us and the money you make from that goes for your own tutions...good, eh? Except that i don't have any money...hmmm...that could be a problem...bet someone here has money...

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  13. My goodness thats hell lot of learning u have done! i just did bharatnatyam and had to leave after 4 yrs because we shifted to a new place :(

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  14. oh..u a flutist now..God..awesome SJ..Me too had music classes while I was in school,n that teacher used to come every Sunday evening right when the movie starts/(which was much awaited that time),n I used to go mad n scowl all the time..:D

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  15. Please don't listen to Aparna and do something like that. :P

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  16. well you never gave up ... kept learning a little bit of everything.. at least you can hold a flute in your and play maybe a small tune... yeah all the technicalities make what seemed so pleasuresome soooo boring. my daughter started bharat natyam and left since she did not like the idea of perfecting a step for an entire hour!!

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