Asking directions

Odds and ends from the last 3 weeks—

It didn’t hit me till afterwards, but I guess I’m becoming something of an old hand on the MCC campus. Wednesday (a couple of weeks ago) I was taking a (hot!) longer than usual walk to use the ATM on the edge of the campus. I was on the last bit of road leading to the guest house when a two-wheeler (translation: motorcycle) pulls up and the fellow on the back seat asks for directions to the philosophy department. Bear in mind that I could not have helped one lick if he had asked for the departments of political science, economics, chemistry, or math (among others), but he was asking directions to my home department, and I could tell him the name of the hall and exactly how to get there! Up till now, I’ve been the one asking directions. Add to that a couple of notices in the MCC Newsletter—one alerting the campus to my presence here as “Scholar in Residence,” the other listing the lecture I presented in the Philosophy department 2 weeks back on a faculty accomplishments page—and I’m starting to feel like I belong. (Don’t fret, Virginia … you don’t know how glad I will be to come back home to you!!)

Got a nice visit from Vimal, director of the Heber Chapel Choir here on campus. I’ve been helping him acquire some music and books to help out the church musicians here on campus. We’ve been talking about doing some sessions with folks who are interested, perhaps some music history, perhaps some music theory. It was lovely to chat with a musician! We got to talking about the donation of a refurbished pipe organ for Heber Chapel. There’s a fellow who has been rehabing organs here in south India, and charging a pretty penny for the privilege. He’ll install this organ as long as they will maintain the instrument on a regular basis. Fortunately the donor is happy to provide this funding on an ongoing basis as well. As we talk, I am surprised to learn I was absolutely wrong (see One Week Down entry) about the number of pipe organs in India. Vimal tells me there are quite a few—most of them in disuse or disrepair, but lots and lots of them. They are another piece of the British heritage here; after all, how can you have a proper Anglican church service without a proper pipe organ? In turn, Vimal is very surprised to learn that the singers in my church choir back home are not all monster sight readers. I have to tell him that many of my music majors are not so good at this, either! He feels like he has to work so hard to get his singers to read notes, follow the director, produce a nice sound and blend, etc., etc. I can’t help but laugh as he talks, and I tell him that these are the things all choir directors struggle with everywhere. Certainly there are a few problems unique to the Indian context, but they are not huge problems compared to what we all face every time we step in front of a choir.

Before Vimal leaves, we agree to go out for pizza in the very near future, and when the day comes, we’re a foursome: Vimal, Suri, a friend of Suri’s celebrating his 25th birthday, and myself. We went over to Pizza Corner, a place some of my American students frequented in 2007. It may not have been the world’s best pizza, but it tasted like it to me!! I mentioned earlier how much I have missed cheese in my diet, so Suri made sure we ordered double cheese, and it was soooooo good. Best of all, it was wonderful to have company at dinner-time. Since then Suri has invited me over to his “pad” on a couple of occasions—some of the company I’ve been craving. Suri is such a kind man; he made a note of my cheese craving, and the next time I visited his place, he brought out a plate of cheese chunks! Suri also has a passion for American pop music of the 1960s (Beatles, Dylan, etc.), especially the more folk-oriented stuff. He helped coordinate a Beatles festival here on campus earlier this year with good performances of lots of classic songs. Like the historian he is, he knows an incredible number of those songs, many more than I do, and he’s even several years younger than I am!