Still much to learn

Delhi is either hopelessly inefficient or delightfully laid back. Whichever way, it can make life extremely frustrating when there things to be done. Today I planned a visit to the Qutb Minar complex, but due to a last minute change of schedule from another party, I´m forced to spend most of the day in the flat. Yesterday I spent an hour completely lost in 40 degrees, being sent on countless wild goose chases around Gurgaon by locals who apparently thought it was better to give te wrong directions than none at all. If I´m complaining, it´s due only to a fault on my part. I´m still seeing Delhi from a Western perspective. Once I start to appreciate the atmosphere as ´delightfully laid back´ I know my experiences will only improve. You have to structure your time as flexibly as the Indians do.

It is difficult though to think of Delhi as care free when you see the number of desperately poor people living on the streets. There´s a lot of new building work taking place in Gurgaon, mostly large blocks of flats and plush detached houses. But within a hundred yards of our respectable ´Princeton´ estate in Gurgaon Phase V, there are countless rows of makeshift shelters made from canvas and branches lining the main roads. Behind them is a small river of stagnant water, clogged with rubbish and the putrifying carcasses of pigs, baking in the sun. Yesterday, as I was being driven back from my school by one of the staff, a boy of about 7 was waiting at some traffic lights, shirtless and pathetically thin. As we stopped at the red light he rushed at us and immediately started rubbing the whole car with a dirty rag. "Don´t give them any money," said my driver. "It only encourages more people to beg." This is the view held by most of the population, but it doesn´t help that boy. He or his family haven´t chosen to beg after seeing the success of others beggars. The beg because they have no other choice. When he saw he wasn´t going to be paid for his efforts the boy stood in front of the car and spread himself over the bonnet, begging pitifully, squeezing his hands together and touching at his mouth.

Despite the frustration, pain and confusion of living here, it never ceases to be a fascinating, vibrant, welcoming and colourful city. There may be masses of new construction, but there is still an ancient feel, particularly in the centre of Delhi. Everything is a hodgepode, the new built on top of the old, the old built on top of the even older.

Teaching is proving to be an extremely rewarding experience. Most of the kids in my school (the Theme Institute) are adorable, and teachers and pupils alike are extremely receptive to my input. There are two main musical issues which plan to address.

The first is that they all learn a piece as much by ear as possible, making very little reference to the notes on the page. When they are taught a scale, for example, they are given the names of the notes, but not made to read the notes as notation. They therefore learn to play, but don´t learn to read music, so sightreading and (most importantly) discovering new music is extremely difficult for them.

The other is that they play with loose fingers and floppy final joints. I´m going to try and teach them to keep their fingers bent in order to create a clear tone, and their wrists loose. They can get away with floppy final joints because they play on electric keyboards with the volume on maximum all the time, so they don´t need to make their fingers work hard in order to make a big sound.

Theo FS