God(s)! this place is intense - I've been getting up every morning at dawn to walk and photo the city streets - Haven't been shooting too many people - mostly temples, shrines, symbols painted on the ground with rice flour - then back to bed for a few more hours then over to Ganesh's where we do "calculations" 4 rounds of 5 four rounds of 4,3,2,1 - it's mechanical and hilarious.
The street dogs of this town look a bit scary and feral - some of them just stand in the road and defy traffic! No one would dare hit them with their car, truck, motorcycle or rickshaw but perhaps a kick in their bony, dusty ass to get them to move... - wound up at this great old temple with Varahi or Varaha well represented - some say he's a boar but I love him just the same! The breathing don't come easy here - I can't imagine what its like when its hot! Haven't been to any concerts yet although Ganesh has a friend also named Ganesh who is supposedly a great jaw/"jewish" harp player as they said - but I haven't heard him yet - Tomorrow is an auspicious day Ganesh said so we will begin rehearsing with a quartet - Ganesh, Krishna on keys, Subash on ghatam (clay pot drum) He's a master that's played with Vishwa Bhatt and I. Subramanium - we will play some of my tunes - They really like Goudla's Gypsy Dance and a couple numbers from Cherry Electric like Teen Empress. We'll also do some carnatic jams - I've learned one raga so far - but I forget its name - I think it's kalyani - In the key of C with an F# but the key is where you put the "gurry" which notes you slide too and from. Cocoanut oil really helps!
Oh yeah, one more little revelation - there's a carnatic/southern style of keyboard music here known as prakruthi of which Krishna is one of the more rockin'est around - so I will sign off now, Truly PraKruthi