One Month Left!

Hello everyone!
Today marks the last month of our ten month stint in India.  We leave Kolkata on June 22 and Delhi on June 23rd and although we're looking forward to all of the things home will bring, we're trying to treasure the last month here.  

So many things have been happening.  Last night was Aakash's final (he thinks) performance in Kolkata before we leave.  He played in a quartet with his friend from Tasmania, Julius.  Julius and Aakash met last summer in Banff and he came to Kolkata for three weeks to hang out and write music.  They performed and studio recorded four tunes and it was really great to have him visit.  He leaves Sunday.  

My work came to an end with the performance of The Wizard of Oz on May 10th.  (I can't remember if I wrote about the final performance, so sorry if I'm repeating myself.)  They kids were absolutely incredible and all of their hard work really paid off in a wonderful show.  They lighting and mics were all very big in a very Indian way, and the kids handled the constant lasers and smoke that kept occurring very well, especially since there was never any dress rehearsal!  The students were also extremely grateful to me and showered me with beautiful homemade gifts and poems.  One student even drew me a picture of a singer sitting on top of a coconut and singing "I LUV DAAB!"  It's really touching how much they'll all miss me, but I am happy to report that I now have four private voice students from Dolna (and five students total!)  I also had a group of six friends (Aakash and my sister including) who came to the show which I really appreciated.  Here's a recording I made of the students singing a cappella in rehearsal.

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Aakash and I visited my favorite daabwalla today and were super saddened and shocked to find that he had cut his left middle finger really badly.  (Job hazard I suppose.)  Although he didn't cut his finger all the way down to the bone (like my friend Matt did), it was definitely a deep cut.  It was pretty swollen and the finger was red from the bleeding.  Another guy was there cutting daab for him.  Aakash and I asked him if he needed anything and ending up bringing him some antibacterial wipes and a roll of bandage.  He started cleaning himself up as we left and I'm frankly not even convinced he had washed or cleaned it at all since he had cut himself yesterday.  It didn't look infected yet, but I'm definitely going to bring him more antibacterial wipes tomorrow.  Just an example of the life of many of the people who live in this country.

That basically sums up the past few weeks for me.  Aakash and I are trying to decide what we want to do in our last month.  We're planning a trip to Shantiniketan as well as a few more "explore Kolkata adventures."  I'm also hoping to spend a little more time on my cycle, but all of these activities are difficult because the temperature has been over 40º (104º F) most days the past few weeks.  Not to mention the humidity.  There's no denying we're looking forward to cooler temperatures in the states!

I hope you're all doing well and finding success in what you're doing.  Know you're in our thoughts and we're looking forward to seeing many of you in a month or so!

Love,
Jayanthi

PS- My sister posted a few videos from our tour in Bangalore in March (Thanks Shantha!) so I thought I'd share them with you.  The first one is with me singing and the second one is of Jeeju's Jeeju.  Enjoy!