Maya Swell Press

One long cross town auto journey, and I’m at Chennai central station, with what I hope is an Indian railways e-ticket booked in my name … bound for Mangalore, with only a fellow student knowing that I’ve packed everything, and am splitting from this tight assed school situation. After talking with Kadri earlier in the […]

On the night before I was scheduled to leave Chennai for Mangalore, I had a fortunately timed call from Nagi, one of the ostentatiously gold draped film music producers I’d met within my first few days in India. Every time we’d tried to connect in the last two months we’d had to cancel, largely because […]

My first major health crisis passed several weeks ago, and yes it was the obvious one. I had had a few hints of what it would be like after the occaisional meal at dodgy street stalls, but most of the street stalls were quite ok, and my passing (!) was solid and straightahead. In any […]

You can’t visit India being hit by that religious assault on the senses, a hindu temple. Of what I have seen so far, the mosques are visually subdued (but noisy, they will do a loud call to prayer on bad loudspeakers at 5:30am) … the Jains are white and minimalist …but the Hindu temples … […]

The first week and a half at TVG’s school flow by gently, or so it seems. TVG, and his daughter Acca are generally not around. I practice ragas for 3-4 hours in the morning. There is not a lot else to do. The girls sit around, watching movie channel on the idiot box, and sing […]

The first few lessons with Kadri are alternately inspiring and frustrating. He is a wonderful musician, a great teacher, and a warm and funny human being … but saxophone in Carnatic music is very different to the traditional instruments of Carnatic music (voice in particular), and very different to saxophone in normal western jazz/pop/classical usage. […]

India is not big on modern western graffiti yet, but they have a brilliant tradition of street art that was one of the first things that really touched me here. These are the rangoli, small chalk mandalas made by spreading fine chalk powder on the pavement. Sometimes they are colorful, sometimes just white. I’ve recently […]

Last few days I’ve had the Bangalore IT blues. This is what you get when you are in a cramped sweaty cubicle in 100 degree heat, hoping that the power doesn’t cut out, thankful you are on a laptop with full batteries so that when the power does cut all that will happen is that […]

The debate is raging in my head. Raga-ing in my head, perhaps. What is the music of India that has such a strange and wonderful hold on me, and where is it headed, and where and how can I get an understanding of it? Much of the clash between new India and old India is […]

Chennai has a well earned reputation for being a difficult city to get around in. In fact this is both true and untrue. Your two main options are auto and bus. There is a train route that cuts down the coast, and links to the airport, so it’s not a great deal of use in […]