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.

last weeeeeeek!

Class in Muktangan School

Oops...I didn't update you last week - it was a crazy one. My husband Michael trekked across the globe to come and join me for the week and see the madness for himself. Work continued with an additional workshop on Friday!!

I met designer at Landor, Ektaa Aggarwal at BlueFROG's Sunday brunch and she asked me to come and do a workshop for her NGO, Aashansh, in Bandra. So on Friday myself and Michael gave an hour's music session to 11 kids in a lovely space, all about Scottish music and dance. I will definitely be returning to do some more as it was really good fun and the group was very responsive.

Singing hello!

playing the clarinet

Tuesday was a great day, visiting Muktangan and introducing all the children in Ayush's classes to new instruments and teaching them some fun songs. They loved meeting Michael with his clarinet and learned an awful lot about how the instrument works! The 3 of us gave a special Valentine's day treat to the new trainee teachers working upstairs, of a wee romantic Scottish piece - and they really didn't want us to leave!

Muktangan school

Other notable events last week included a fab Dharavi Rocks drumming workshop from Tara Tucker, a djembe teacher from Australia. It was really interesting to take part in her session and see the perseverance and patience she has at waiting for the rhythm to come and build slowly.

Sunday's miniFROG was a hit, with everyone making colourful shakers with sparkly paper glued around recycled bottles, filled with rice, lentils and mungbeans!

So that's just a little bit of what happened...This week: I'll be giving a teaching workshop to Mewsic's tutors as well as leading Dharavi Rocks (and discussing what happens next for this), working with Ayush Shrestha on our blueFROG early set for the 2nd of March, giving another music workshop with Aashansh, working with Ayush in Muktangan schools, and going to Kerala for the weekend! Phew....

Gig coming up!

I will be guesting with Ayush Shrestha at BlueFROG on the 2nd of March - the early set 8-9pm!

http://www.facebook.com/events/237631399664584/ One hour of originals with a couple of new songs and the old ones done in a new way. Featuring Laura Grime, musician from Scotland. Introducing "Cushioned Bamboo Chair", "Yellow Moon" and "Anything as it is"...

the entry is free before 9pm. Let the Friday party at BlueFROG start early on March 2!!

MUSICAL CHILDREN GALORE!

This week has been full of activity. Throughout the week I met around 270 children! I visited two mewsic centres in the slums of Govandi and Dharavi, two Muktangan schools with Ayush Shrestha, as well as attending Dharavi Rocks, staying late in the office to work and generally enjoying Mumbai life! Time is constantly getting eaten up but it makes life all the more exciting.

MEWSIC: So after a short and sweet meeting with Darshan and Emily from Innovaid who run Mewsic, it was agreed that I will help to give their music teachers some training in how to set up the classroom, give appropriate praise to the children, and some ideas to make the classes a bit more fun and keep the children coming back for more.

On Tuesday I was joined by Hanifa (who has kindly agreed to be my translator) and Darshan in Govandi slum - I have never been to a more dusty place in all my life. The mewsic centre is located on the edge of the Govandi dumping ground, a huge mountain of rotting waste, where rag pickers including around 1300 children work, collecting recyclable rubbish in exchange for less than 100 rupees a day (about £1). Here's some pictures of the surroundings - it's quite a challenge to take photographs around this area for obvious reasons.

The Mewsic centre has been open for 2 months and is still experiencing some teething problems, which I going to try and help them address over the next few weeks. There's little consistency in who turns up for the music classes, and the children are largely illiterate which the teacher is really struggling with, as his method is very focused on letters and numbers.

Wednesday was spent with Hanifa again, this time in Dharavi Mewsic centre. This couldn't have been much more different from the previous day. The surrounding area was clean, not at all dusty and the centre was neat, tidy and fairly well equipped with 2 additional staff to help the children with their practice. It was really touching to meet such polite, sharing and motivated children. The atmosphere was one of concentration, pleasure, and the kids definitely knew why they were there, and were making the most of the opportunity. I'm really looking forward to going back and doing more work with the teachers to see what we can achieve.

Dharavi River

egg transport!

Woman drying chillies in Dharavi street

The entrance to the trapdoor of the Mewsic Centre in Dharavi

In the evening I went off to Dharavi Rocks with Ayush and Abhijit, who spent the session working on a couple of new songs. Despite a really noisy disco going on outside, the group managed to focus and learn the songs as best they could. Singing certainly isn't a strong point of the group, so I'm going to be encouraging them to do more rhythm work in the coming weeks, including body percussion, junk percussion, and some cup music...more to come!

My favourite day of the week, however, had to be Thursday. Ayush invited me to come to 2 of the Muktangan schools he teaches at. Muktangan is an integrated community school set up by the Paragon Charitable Trust, training local women to teach in a forward thinking method for children from the local poor community. Music is included in the curriculum, which is unusual in your average Indian government school. We played music with and for 8 classes over the day and the response was truly fantastic. The children were really happy to be singing and were fascinated by the violin, truly relishing seeing one in the flesh! Ayush is a really great person to be working with young children. His gentle, caring approach really suits the job and I am really looking forward to seeing him develop his style as he becomes more confident and develops some more diverse material for the children.

More to come....!

SULAFEST!

I was very honoured to be asked by Nepali singer songwriter Ayush Shrestra to perform with him at Sulafest - a weekend music festival at a gorgeous vineyard near Nashik, about 120km from Mumbai! So we did a short set on the Saturday for a select crowd and then it was on with the big show on Sunday, playing on the main stage - warming up for Nitin Sawnhey. Great crowd and a fantastic atmosphere!

GIG WITH TAAL INC.

Images copyright of Ayush Das Stills & Motion Picture Photography

So, very neglectfully of me - I completely forgot to mention my exciting performance of last wednesday (25th Jan) with West African Rhythm Ensemble, Taal Inc. at the BlueFROG Sula Fest Pre Party. It was a great night with a spellbinding performance from Bangalore singer songwriter Gowri and finished off by psytrance DJ Mad Maxx. Taal Inc. really got the party started in the middle, and it was great to be invited to finish off the set with them on a high energy solo in their epic medley of tunes and djembe solos! Thanks to Abhijit Jejurikar and the Taal Inc. guys for having me! x You can see more photos of the gig taken by Ayush Das Stills & Motion Picture Photography on FACEBOOK!