Back in India!

So I'm finally getting round to writing a bit of blog! I've been in India for 2 weeks now - and what a crazy trip it's been so far...

I started in Delhi with Vicky Cave on a research and development trip focusing on developing a residency for a Scottish Live Music Now musician in 2014. It was so different to Mumbai - cold, HUGE, but with a really interesting grass roots scene building up around music. We ran around the city like mad women for a week and really feel that something very exciting will happen there next year, focusing on working with Music Basti and Global Music Institute! We even managed to squeeze in a trip to the Taj Mahal which was brilliant.

I'm now in Mumbai and it's been great catching up with my friends and playing music again. I went to school with Ayush yesterday and gave the children a big surprise - they were so delighted that I ended up the centre of a mighty bear hug!
There's a new musician from Live Music Now just starting a similar residency to mine here, Jamie Munn, and he is settling in well - despite various run ins on local public transport! It will be really interesting to see how his work pans out. The good thing is that everyone that I worked with in Mumbai last year is very up for working with him!

Off to Sula fest for the weekend and then to Goa for a bit of work and a holiday!
 more blogging to come...

jubilee bow!!

I'm not much of a fan of the royal family to be perfectly honest, and I am totally ignoring jubilee fever....however, one of my pupils has geniusly and painstakingly wound jubilee ribbon around her violin bow - check it out!! (and the matching hair ribbon!!)

bye bye!

I realize that it's been about 2 weeks now since I came back to Scotland, but I'm still really thinking about my time in Mumbai. I must say that I miss it a lot. The city eats you up and gets under your skin (as well as your finger nails and the soles of your feet)! The last 3 months have been incredible and definitely the most fulfilling of my career so far. The reverse culture shock was difficult and I'm still feeling a little bit lost and confused by own country. It took me by suprise how quiet, spacious and cold Scotland is, but perhaps I'm gradually getting used to it again!

I packed the work in right up until the last moment. My last day was particularly memorable as I managed to connect up with Abishek Bharadwaj who campaigns for homeless families rights in Mumbai. There's a large population of homeless people from Rajasthan living in an area called Mahim, with one of the busiest roads in Mumbai, and I went to play my violin on the street at the start of rush hour for their children. It was so lovely to see the kids get involved and all the adults of the community were equally curious and happy to have me (I was welcomed so warmly into their street homes). I really enjoyed meeting them and hearing their stories and struggles. Enjoy the pictures:

And some trying out of my violin with the Dharavi Rocks kids - they LOVED the chance to get hands on with a 100 year old instrument!

My last day with Ayush was spent in a Muktangan school, and the kids decided that the best way to say good bye to me was to do the Highland Fling:

The morning of my last day was spent with my lovely friend Priya who took me to get some mehndi done on my hand...beautiful!

and with that....I wave bye bye for now! x

LAST POSTING...for now...

If anyone had told me in March last year that in a year's time I would have been to Mumbai on a Live Music Now and Creative Scotland solo residency, I would have laughed in disbelief! The past 3 months been such an enriching and fulfilling experience, I know I am really going to have a hard time explaining to people at home just how amazing it has been, so if you see me over the next few weeks/months, you'll just have to bare with me!

My last week kicked off in true style with a me leading a workshop in music for personal and professional for 40 social workers, NGO based practitioners, and people from a wide variety of settings at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. I set this up right at the start of my time in Mumbai, through my arty auntie, Liz Kemp, who has worked with TISS for several years. When I heard there were 40 participants (the day before the workshop) I had a small scream and ate a lot of chocolate, but when it came to it, the day went really well! I got some fantastic feedback, so by the end of the day I was sitting on the train back from Chembur, lolling off, grinning!

I am delighted that I have made a real impact on some childrens' music education in school with Ayush. On Tuesday when Ayush said "this is Laura's last session with you, because on Saturday she's going back to Scotland", there were some hilarious responses from the classes including:

"Why?...Why?!....WHY?!"

and

"DON'T go, please stay!"

I still have ringing in my ears from all the children saying at the end of the day: "BYE LAURA TEACHER!!!!"

I am really going to miss seeing so many kids getting involved with no inhibitions and enjoying themselves with music...and will definitely miss this cheeky face!

So tonight is the very last Dharavi Rocks workshop...I'll do a final update before I'm off on the journey home...LOTS STILL TO PACK IN!

Performance at blueFROG!

Last Friday night, Ayush and I did an hour long performance at the blueFROG's early set- it was great fun and we had a fab time! Here's some pics from the special evening...photos courtesey of Sukrit Nagaraj.

attention!

This week I was joined by the director of Live Music Now Scotland, Carol Main. It was good to show her around the city and take her to see some of the places I have been working and meet some of the people who have been influential on my residency. She particularly enjoyed our crazy trip to Dadar to capture some of the sounds of Mumbai! I did a bit of dodgey recording on a mixture of my mobile phone and my laptop, but hopefully I will be able to compile something interesting out the results - watch this space...

Dadar flower market was looking particularly stunning this week so I took some pictures!

I seem to have a really low attention span this week! Perhaps it's because I feel the end of my residency is coming really quickly, and I still have lots that I could do here -there's just so little time! New opportunities are being presented all the time and India is so open to what I can bring.

It's not just me with a short attention span, I have to say. Every child this week seemed to have something on their mind, most probably because there were holidays. This wednesday and thursday brought the huge celebration of Holi! An annual Hindu festival of colour celebrating the arrival of Summer and equality of human life - everyone covers everyone else in lurid coloured powder, saying "happy holi", usually followed by a great water party! It was fantastic to celebrate this with a wild bunch of people on a lovely sunny day in Andheri (north Mumbai)! Unfortunately, there was too much water around to take any photos...one of my still pink feet coming soon!

On Wednesday, I went back to work with Aashansh's early morning children in Worli. Last time I visited the children were excitable but were very responsive and interested. This week, however, there was a completely different atmosphere, with the kids on the verge of running wild! There was not much sharing going on and clearly tensions amongst the group were coming to the fore. Many of the children seemed pretty unhappy. I really struggle to say why this was but I think these children seem like they haven't had enough to eat - they are really malnourished looking and small for their ages. Most likely a lack of sleep, and food combined with the excitement of Holi was taking its toll. It will be really interesting to see if this is the case next week, when things perhaps will be more normal.

Here's some photos from my first visit to Aashansh in Worli

Singing struggles

Dharavi Rocks is stepping up its teaching program, looking at the basics of music - rhythm, pulse, pitch etc. So with this in mind Ayush and I spent the week before last identifying everyone's vocal range. We ended up with 2 groups and since then the singing has been far better.

It's really interesting hearing the kids try to pitch a note and sing a scale - it seems such a struggle for an untrained voice, and there really are only one or two kids who find it easy to sing back in tune. One thing that really helped however, was introducing the boomwhackers. Using these to help the kids understand the scale helped no end and the concept of getting higher by step started sinking in. Perhaps more tuneful times are on their way!

Teamwork is also really developing further with the kids taking turns to lead the boomwhackers or lead a group of singers. It's fantastic to see the way the respond to each other and follow a leader with concentration!

The future for Dharavi Rocks holds exciting times with the prospect of recording an album with Indian and International artists in order to fund further work. Ayush started working on a song that he wrote, inspired by the group, with the kids. He's going to work on some Hindi lyrics with the kids to incorporate into "Yellow Moon" over the next few weeks.

Other future plans include getting a junk percussion maker to come and work with the group to improve their unusual instruments and develop Dharavi Rocks' sound! This will add to the unique dynamic of the band.