The Indian Habitat Center (IHC) scheduling - We have this splendid spot just down the road that is a cultural center/hotel/conference center/collection of restaurants (including a diner with authentic Elvis memorabilia).  It really is a 12 minute walk and was the venue for our famous classical dance performance (that was meant to be a sitar recital).  I love to scan the papers for what is happening at IHC as the majority of their events are free,sound very interesting and are close by.  Today the paper announced a fictional film about pressures on individuals in villages which we thought sounded pretty good and as IHC is also prime exhibition space we knew there would be several new art exhibits too.  Bert and I strolled up the road noticing that the wild dogs are coming back (they were impounded before the Commonwealth Games).  We took some time scouting for the day's offerings on the various notice boards at IHC and were not too surprised that our Mirch Masala movie wasn't listed.:)  We decided that an interesting fall back would be the lecture on early Bollywood singers to be followed with performance of some of those early hits.

Not too surprisingly this event shared some of the same characteristics as the dance performance.  People wandered in over the first half hour of the event and eventually close to 100 people were there.  Several people overlooked  silencing, or deliberately kept on, their phones, and unlike the US, there was no announcement asking people to switch off phones.  Someone even took a call as the performer was getting ready to start his first song.  Perhaps because it is an accepted custom to talk during performances, or because this audience was largely elderly and perhaps no longer had such good hearing, the volume was up high.  There was no mouse competing with the lecturer or the singer but I was entertained that the drummer, sitting cross legged and waiting to accompany the singer, wriggled his mobile phone out of his pocket and gave it a quick read as the singer started up.  The singer also accompanied himself on a small hand pumped organ.  Left hand pumping gently and right hand playing several strands of melody.

The lecture was short and enthusiastic and full of great nuggets:  All the early singers had to be good actors AND singers; most were classically trained;  early talkies came to India in 1931; and Calcutta was the movie centre then.  The lecture was followed by 15 minutes of ancient recordings of those early artists and then two young music students performed several songs to an enthusiastic audience.  It was a sedate and pleasantly musical offering with a lot less hyperactivity than today's Bollywood.

The moral of the story seems to be that no matter when we go to IHC, there will be something worthwhile going on, but we had better not get our hearts too set on any particular event.

Tomorrow we are trying for a dance performance in front of some very lovely ruins in Purana Qila.  We'll see how they do with their scheduling.

Qawwali Sitting Position