My master helps me acquire a drum

Saturday with long stretches of no power and lots of rain.

Yesterday was a bright beautiful sunny day in Aranmula, when I set off after my morning tabla class to meet my mridangama teacher in Chengannur. This is roughly a half hour bus ride and I enjoyed being the only whitefellah on the local bus, standing up in the aisle amidst men in their dhotis and trying to look like I was a local. I arrived in Chengannur at the designated place and found a little phone booth to call my teacher on his mobile phone. He said he would come and get me in 5 minutes on his motorbike. I hung up and immediately there was a huge downpour of rain that seemed to come from nowhere - I hadn't noticed it approach. And of course I had made the decision to leave my umbrella in Aranmula, so I got drenched in seconds. I waited for my guru and he eventually arrived after about 20 mins, saying "Climate is not good". He rode his motorbike with his raincoat on back-to-front and handed me a hat, and off we went in the pouring rain - it was quite fun. He took me to his family home, where I was introduced to his parents and his wife and their 6 year old daughter. His wife is a singer and teaches Carnatic singing. I was ushered to a chair on the front verandah and asked if I wanted dry clothes, but I declined - I'm in Kerala. My guru took me into his office and showed me where he teaches mridangam to local students. He is also an astrologer and there was fortune telling stuff there as well. then, when food was ready, I was taken into a simple room and my guru and I ate lunch, served by his wife. The daughter came in and out checking on howI was eating, and after I engaged her in very simple English conversation her parents instucted her to sing me a song, so I was serenaded as I ate. after the meal we went off on the bike (the rain had slowed) to an instrument maker's shop. Through Subhash (my guru) I had ordered a mridangam. I'm not sure if I will bring it home because I already have one, but this in fact is a very good one - good enough for professinal concerts. The instrument maker talked with my teacher and together they checked out the tuning of the drum - it is tuned to G, and the instrument maker used a harmonium to check the pitch and made little adjustments to the black dot on the surface of the drum. Finally both he and Subhashji were satisfied, and voila, I have a new mridangam, which means I can practice it in my room at any time rather than competing for time in teh school room on the lesser quality mridangams there. Subhash was talking to the instrument maker and I heard the word "arangetram" used. This is the concert and he "coming-of-age" process that is organised when teh teacher agrees taht his student is good enough to make their first public performance. It is a very special occasion, and sigtnifies that the student is serious and starting out on the real professional road. So my teacher was suggesting that I would be able to make my arangetram before I went back to Australia. I'm not sure if this will be possible, but I was interested to hear that he might have this in mind for me - he's certainly pushing me hard. We'll see. So then we traveled by motorbike (rain had disappeared by then) back to Aranmula with me clutching the very heavy mrdingam in one arm.
I already bought a set of tablas to practice in my room, so now I have a room full of drums.
three students left this morning, including one of my housemates, and Dan from UK has decided to move house from where he was. He is also a tabla student, so we have a house of percussion.

PS - Ok Aussies - please email me some election campaign gossip. What's happening? Are the opinion polls still bad news for Howard?