| Jan-Feb 2011: FreePlay Duo, India, Singapore and Bali |
|
Dylan and Suba just got home from our tour of India, Singapore, and Bali. Fasten your seatbelts... here we go!
He's not making fun of you. He's sort of like a Gargoyle: he scares off the evil spirits. An auspicious way to start. Chapter 1: Chennai (formerly Madras)It’s a pretty long flight to India. How long? Put it this way… we left on New Year’s Eve, and arrived on Jan 2! Fortunately, our flights were uneventful – no volcanoes or other natural disasters like our trip to Europe in May.
Chapter 2: Mumbai (formerly Bombay)
Our final night in Mumbai started with a classic Mumbai pastime: eating pav bahji on Chowpatty Beach. We then walked along the boardwalk (known as the Queens Necklace for the city lights and curving shoreline) to finish off with a nightcap at the Intercontinental Hotel’s rooftop bar, The Dome. All-in-all, a day well-spent.
Up next… Chapter 3: Pune. Read on as Ed, Suba and Dylan see giant bats, get lost in hippyville, and perform at the Mahindra United World College.
Chapter 3: PuneThe next day saw us taking a train to Pune. Pune is only 150km away from Mumbai, but the train takes four hours. Here’s why:
We eventually got there and settled into Ed’s apartment, a nice place with a beautiful balcony view.
As the sun set, all sorts of birds came out: swallows, geese, big guys that looked like falcons… it was lovely. Until we saw this:
It turns out that this is a giant fruit bat, aka a “flying fox”. Their wingspan can be up to four feet wide. Fortunately they eat mangoes, not people… but we’re pretty sure we heard a distant “mwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!” as we scrambled inside.
The next day was all about getting lost. Dylan found himself a map of Pune for his iPod… it was pretty much useless. Many streets in Pune don’t even have names, and so directions are given using landmarks. More importantly, many local folks don’t seem to know where things are… not that they’d tell you that. We spent about an hour and a half walking back and forth, looking for a particular vegetarian restaurant. Good news: we eventually found it. Bad news: “Sorry sir, it’s closed. For the year.” This gentleman gave us another recommendation, which took another hour – and four different, conflicting “suggestions” from people on how to get there. Fortunately, the food was worth it… even if it was a bit spicy.
It’s worth a quick digression to discuss the infamous Indian “head-waggle”. The Waggle is sort of the Indian equivalent of nodding – just side-to-side, rather than up and down. Its meaning is subtle and layered. So far, we’d discovered that The Waggle can mean the following: 1. Yes Moreover, Indians don’t always like to respond to questions negatively, so asking directions goes something like this. - “Excuse me sir, can you tell me how to get to [name your destination]”? - [head waggle] - “so, which way”? - [head waggle, followed by vague pointing] - “is that left or right on this street?” - [head waggle] … well, you get the picture. The next day was a workshop and concert at the Mahindra World College of India. The College is high up on a mountaintop, in a nature reserve… a beautiful place for the 200 students to live and learn. If we ever have kids, we’ll send them to a place like this… and get a teaching gig there while we’re at it! We gave an informal workshop to a small but enthusiastic crowd. The students are hand-picked from all over the world, and it shows: the audience was a truly multicultural mix, with excellent, intelligent questions.
After the workshop we were given a tour of the grounds, including the herbal/medicinal garden and the biodiversity forest, where we stayed to watch a beautiful sunset.
Our concert was fantastic, and the music was hot: hot enough that we blew out the PA system halfway through and had an unexpected intermission, followed by an a cappella solkattu piece, and the rest of the show. Suba sounded lovely despite a nasty cold, Ed got to try out his new tabla, and Dylan figured out how to make a borrowed high-school 4-string bass sound like his usual German-made 6-string bass. Many thanks to Ben and Sindhu for hosting our time at Mahindra UWC. Our final day in Pune saw us at the National Film Archive of India, where Suba wanted to do some research for an upcoming Autorickshaw project. The National Film Archive of India was established as a media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in February 1964. Its three principal objectives are * To trace, acquire and preserve for posterity the heritage of Indian cinema; * To classify, document data and undertake research relating to films; * To act as a centre for the dissemination of film culture. It has over 10,000 films, over 10,000 books, over 10,000 film scripts, and over 50,000 photographs.
Don't worry. Most of the films aren't stored like this! The place was fascinating, and it was exciting to meet people completely passionate about their work. It’s another place where the pictures do all the talking, so click here to see our/Ed’s blog/photo gallery. Ed, Suba and Dylan go "Camping"! So, on our last night in Pune, Ed decided to take us to the shopping district, just off MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road. This area is known as Pune Camp, complete with fine dining, shopping complexes, corporate and commercial buildings, etc. More than that, we were drawn in by the various street vendors, and our sampling included corn (roasted kernels with butter, salt, black pepper, white pepper, coriander, lime, and chilies), and lime soda (with real hand-squeezed lime juice). And then there was Jai Shankar. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. In fact, it’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall joint, but the place is packed with locals, the smells are divine, there is a buzzing energy filling the air around the stall, and we then get the distinct sense that we are approaching greatness of some kind in this very modest Pune Camp. We all ordered Pani Puri: It comprises a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of water, tamarind, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. It is small enough to fit completely in one's mouth. Panipuri is served one at a time to each customer, round-robin style. Then the server gives a look and a Head Waggle to ask if any adjustments need to be made to the panipuri. * Remember that he asks this of every single customer and each customer might make an adjustment for the next round of panipuris being served. Servers have to remember each customer's preferences such as sweetened pani, more filling or extra onions, for example. The server must also keep count of how many panipuris each person has had. Panipuri servers are renowned for remembering choices and numbers served, even when serving an entire crowd (in our case, there were five of us standing around the server in a semicircle). Back in Toronto, Suba was involved in a multimedia project called “Virtuosic Toronto”. In this project, a filmmaker documented the repetitive-yet-precise work of Toronto’s “everyday virtuosos”: coffee servers, shoe-shiners, and the like. Dancers and musicians then created a live visual and audio score to the film. Here at Jai Shankar, our server was beyond impressive with his know-how and his flair. After serving up panipuri after panipuri of mouth-watering, sweet and sour goodness, we recognized that he was the embodiment of Virtuosic Pune. We wrapped up our excursion with our late-night meal, eating Chicken and Veg 65 at a local Durbar. Chicken 65 is a famous Indian delicacy… there was even a song written about it. The next day we bid farewell to Ed and started our very long journey to Singapore. Tune in to the next chapter, where Dylan and Suba rediscover modernity, sing in the old Singapore Parliament, and see a giant ship on top of a building. until then, click here to see a full photo gallery of our time in Pune.
Chapter 4: Singapore
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to record it… but if you go to the “a cappella program” section on this site, you can see examples, taken from a concert last year at the River Run Centre in Guelph, Ontario. Click here to see our Singapore photo gallery
Angie and Baby Hana Up next… Chapter 5: Bali. Tune in as Suba and Dylan become multimillionaires, go on a (temporary) raw-food diet, and learn to take it slow. Chapter 5: BaliAt last, we had come to the end of our tour. Since we’d travelled more than 90% of the way there already, we decided to go “off the clock” and spend some vacation-time in Bali. When we changed money at the airport, we discovered that we were now multimillionaires!
Not so fast… the exchange rate is about 9000 rupiah to the dollar. Oh well.
Our first stop was Ubud, in central Bali. Ubud is known throughout the island, and throughout the world, as a place where people come to heal. Health spas – real ones, not just massage-and-manicure places – abound here, and there are numerous balians, a vocation somewhere between naturopathy and shamanism. (Apparently, there are more balian in Bali than doctors. Most Balinese will see the balian first… and balian and doctors regularly refer each other!) While we didn’t see a balian here, we did stay at a health resort: Ubud Sari. Ubud Sari Health Resort is a place for those wishing to enhance mind, body and spirit in a picturesque, serene environment, but not in that Extreme Yoga or Bach-and-ocean-sounds kind of way. It is for the serious and hard-core health seekers wishing to detox, cleanse and purify their bodies. From simple a la carte massages and bodywork, to yoga and meditation classes, to 6-day fasting and healing treatments, there is something for everyone, and all treatments are done with great care and attention. Next time, we will plan ahead and commit to one of their programs.
One bit of “work” we did while at Ubud Sari was the recording of a two-part a cappella version of Don McLean’s Vincent. Here’s the back story. Suba is one of twelve resident artists at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, under the fearless leadership of mastermind Albert Schultz. To celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Resident Artist program, fellow RA Noah Richler decided to plan a secret celebrate-Albert party with all of the RAs who were in town, some of the YC staff and Albert’s family. A few of us were on different continents, but Noah pursued the idea of us creating something from afar and sending it via cyberspace so that we could be there in voice and spirit. Thank the Gods and Goddesses for technology! Two days after the request, we created our two-part a cappella version of Vincent – one of the songs on the Albert play list, secretly obtained by Noah. You can hear our version of Vincent here: recorded using the mic on our laptop, complete with Ubud fauna in the distance: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Vincent (D McLean), performed by Suba Sankaran and Dylan Bell Thanks to Noah for spearheading the covert operation and everyone who was able to celebrate. And to Albert: thank you for being you, and for all that you do and give and make happen. After a few days at Ubud Sari, it was inevitable that we’d run through all of the permutations of similar ingredients so we decided to take a half-day course on Balinese cooking. For such a tightly-connected, communal society, food in Bali takes on a different role than you would imagine. First of all, eating is not really a social event. Forget Italian-like scenes of people around a giant table, breaking bread together for hours on end. In Bali people often eat alone, and they eat whenever they get hungry, not at prescribed times when everyone gathers together. Everything is made fresh daily. Food supplies are sourced early in the morning (markets are closed by 10am), and the lengthy preparation and cooking happens throughout the morning. All dishes for the whole day are made before lunchtime (the main meal for Balinese), and are available for people to nosh on for the rest of the day. We started at a relatively-relaxed 8am with a market tour. Our guide and co-chef Oleg was fantastic in not only describing all the foods and ingredients, but in giving us insight on Balinese customs and cultures the whole way, and the subtle differences between Balinese and Indonesian cooking. We came back to our cooking headquarters by late morning and had “second breakfast”, a collection of different delicious (and very sweet) snacks to fuel us up for the cooking procedure. But it’s not nearly as much fun to talk about food as it is to see it… so click here for a blow-by-blow photo gallery of what we learned to make. Ubud is the also the cultural capital of Bali. It was always ruled by arts-friendly kings, and later on when things were getting rough with the Dutch colonialists, Ubud applied to be treated as a “Dutch protectorate”, allowing it to be spared in times of struggle. This allowed the arts to flourish for hundreds of years, and from the classic legends of the Ramayana brought from India in the 5th century to the influence of 20th-century expatriate European painters, it shows everywhere. Naturally, we were primarily interested in the music. We’ve both had some experience with the main Indonesian musical style called gamelan. Suba has performed numerous times with Toronto’s Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan; Dylan took a course in Southeast Asian music in school, and composed a choral piece based on the Indonesian scale pelog. Gamelan music was everywhere in Ubud, from a casual practice in the community hall outside our first hotel, to a massive temple ceremony/street-parade which seemed to involve everyone in the city. Since Balinese music is often seen in the context of dance performances, we managed to see a couple of excellent shows. The first one didn’t happen, at least at first, but involved an interesting side-story. On our way to check out various dance venues, we came across a woman selling tickets. We bought them, had a nice Balinese (read: slow) dinner, and went to see the show. We were stopped by a guard on the way in who said “No show tonight. Someone died and they can’t use the temple”. When we asked about a refund, he said “try the woman at the restaurant over there”. We hadn’t bought our tickets from her, so no dice. We started home, saddened that someone had passed away, disappointed that we wouldn’t see a show tonight, and a little concerned that perhaps the ticket seller had scammed us. We heard someone calling from behind us. We were just about to give her the brush-off, assuming it was yet another street-hawker, when we realized it was our ticket seller: she had gone to the venue to try to find us, and hunted us down on the street on a moped. She gave us back our money and asked us to come tomorrow night. Humbled by her honesty and perseverance in finding us, we said we would. “Come find me to buy tickets”, she said. “You know where, yes?” True to our word, we came back the next night and found her on the same stoop. But the story got better: not only was she selling tickets, she was one of the singers in the show! We thanked her and told her we’d look forward to seeing her perform. The show we had come to see had a combination of dances, all performed with the dancers or singers in a trance-like state. The first was the kecak, and it was fascinating. It’s performed a cappella, with the singers seated in concentric circles, and most of it isn’t singing, but rhythmically-complex, interlocking chanting of “chak-chak-a-chak”. Why? The story behind the dance concerns (in part) the Monkey God, and the singers represent the monkeys in the forest. In addition, the singers weave and sway in eerie, school-of-fish-like precision and one-mindedness. To read a more detailed description, click here.
Next up was a dance with two young girls, also in a trance, who performed a graceful dance to the Gods in perfect sync… with their eyes closed the entire time. Our ticket seller was one of several female singers who accompanied this one. After the dance was finished the girls had to be revived and gently led from the stage. The final dance was one of those things you hear about, but don’t really believe until you see it. A pile of coconut husks was lit on fire, and the coals scattered. A dancer came out with a hobby-horse like prop and “rode” it around the circle. He too was in a trance, and when you hear what’s next, you’ll be glad he was. He rode his hobby-horse, galloping around in his bare feet… then kicked the burning coals… then stepped through them and upon them as he galloped. Helpers re-gathered the coals, and he did it again. Several times. At the end of the dance he sat down, slowly coming out of his trance. Tourists came to feel his blackened feet. No tricks, no gimmicks… this was the real deal.
The next performance we saw was thanks to our dear friends Ken Shorley and Heidi Kalyani. Ken is a longtime student of Suba’s father and a fantastic percussionist, and he and Heidi came to Ubud for an intensive Balinese-culture course in 2009. Suba wrote to Ken asking where to see the best gamelan in town, and we got his answer the day of their performance. Ken described the Semara Ratih as a mix of traditional and modern gamelan, and a cut above most of what he saw here. He was right on the money. Since we don’t have recordings, here’s a photo gallery of the show and the dances. They say Bali is one of those places where time seems to lose all meaning, and it’s true. For the first few days, it took some time to adjust from the constant travel and fast pace we had become accustomed to touring India and Singapore. But eventually, we found ourselves seduced by the rhythm of Balinese time. We had deliberately left this part of the trip open, so we could play it by ear. We planned to stay in Ubud for 5 to 7 days. We stayed for 9. This might help explain why.
For our last few days, we decided to go to Sanur for some quiet, beach-and-book-reading time before heading back to a very tight work schedule back in Toronto. As we write this, it’s our final night, and the monsoon is in full force. We’ve decided that it’s Bali’s way of saying it’s OK for us to go. But take a look at this photo gallery, and you’ll see why it’s so hard to leave. Tomorrow we rise at 6am for a flight to Singapore, a whirlwind 15-hour stopover for some last-minute Singapore shopping (and a final pre-flight massage!), and 1am flight beginning our long, journey home. Many thanks again to all those who helped make this tour possible: Virgil, Ben and Sindhu, Angie and Alex, and the Singapore crew. We know we’ll see you all again. Thanks to Ed for making us a trio in Pune, and for giving us a place to stay. Thanks especially to the Ontario Arts Council: your support made this tour possible. And thanks to all the new friends and fans we’ve met along the way. Please stay in touch! Here endeth the Blog. Join us in May, when Dylan and Suba head back to Europe! |
Many of these tours were supported of the Ontario Arts Council. There's no way that we (or our presenters) could have made this happen without their support, and for that, we are grateful.
