Wednesday 8 July 2009

Music lessons and football

Having read Neil's blog, I found it quite hard to resist the pangs of jealousy that hit me upon reading his daily routine:

-yoga at 7 in the morning, followed by:
-a swim. in speedos.

I imagine that during their hectic schedule Neil and Olivia find it very difficult to fit in their ayurvedic massages. Tough life. I wouldn't mind taking everything off so that someone could give me a massage.

So, while those two are busy being at peace with the world down in the south, Theo V and I spend our days haggling with rickshaw drivers in 40+ temperatures, getting lost in central Delhi with same rickshaw drivers, and then getting stuck in mile-long traffic jams on the way back home. In the same 40+ temperatures.

But that all sounds a tiny bit too bitter, and it is, because we're in fact having a pretty good time. We're getting treated really well by everyone here. This is especially the case at our music schools. Last night one of my student's parents told me that the teacher has a highly valued place in society. In fact (well, according to her at least), the teacher is just one step down from God - so effectively we are gurus. I have to say I really don't mind having this title attached to me. It 's good for the self-esteem.

It possibly also explains why I am followed around by people in the school offering me drinks and snacks all the time. Also, at our guest house where we're staying, there is a young man called Balo (pronounced "Pablo") who doesn't speak a word of english (not strictly true - he can say "yes" and "football"), who seems to want to do everything and anything for us. This even involves cleaning my bedroom and bed in the morning while I am still sleeping (or trying to!).

The music lessons have been challenging but enjoyable so far. For someone who hasn't really had any experience of teaching, I've definitely been thrown in at the deep end (NB this is a metaphorical deep end - not the real deep end that Neil and Olivia dive into every morning!). I'm based at the Theme Music School in Delhi, which is the school that Anjli runs. I teach a mixture of solo and group lessons. In the solo lessons I get to teach in a private room with an actual piano, but for the group lessons I'm in a "piano booth" which has 6 clavinovas and one "master" keyboard. Group lessons are definitely more challenging because I have to keep talking all time (more difficult than you'd think - I'm good at talking but not when what I say has to be relevant or acutally mean something!). And it's very hard to try to convey information to 6 different people at once (I now have much more sympathy for teachers and lecturers!). I had some pre-grade 1 pupils yesterday which was my most challenging lesson yet - I was teaching them to play different notes on the keyboard, and also rhythm things like what quavers, crotchets and minims are. But it's actually really difficult because they were all about 8 years old and getting them to sit still and pay attention for a whole hour is definitely easier said than done. It was really embarrassing when I told them all to play a middle C at the same time, and then I hit a B by mistake. What a joke. The pupils aren't the only ones who need the lessons...

Finally, I've become good friends with one of my pupils called Nakul. He lives in the same area of Delhi as our guest house. Yesterday he invited us to play football in his local park, an offer which Theo V and I both took up. This was at 8pm, but we both forgot that it doesn't really ever get cooler in Delhi, so after 15 minutes we were completely drenched in sweat - and exhausted. However I'm pleased to say that I was on the winning team. After this he invited us back to his home (which was nice to say the least) and we had freezing cold mango juice. This sounds trivial, but it was so utterly good after having lost half our body weight through sweat! Then we met his mum, who was absolutely delighted that her son had made some english friends - to the extent that she said we could come over any time we wanted. Given that he's got a playstation 3, a piano and food on demand (literally), we've decided to take this offer up - we're going round to his house again on friday for a meal...and probably for playstation too.

So all I need now is a swimming pool and a good massage, and I'll be completely resistant to any more attacks of jealousy. I think I'll skip the yoga though - if I tried to do that outside at 7 in the morning I'd get run over by a rickshaw.

Ruairi x

1 comment:

  1. Reckon you need to explore a swap - even for brief time massage and swim sounds just the thing!!!
    Very glad you can function in the heat and monsoon humidity .It must be amazing to experience Delhi at full pelt .
    who would have thought you would find it difficult to talk all the time ...I remember days when you lost your voice through talking 24/7 as you left the sixth form !
    very glad you have made Indian friends MUmxxxx

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