My dad read a book that said to become an expert at anything, you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice. That equates to roughly 3 hours a day for ten years, according to the book. A lot of time...
We went to a performance by a "master" mridangam (an Indian percussion instrument)player and our friend and ghatam (Indian clay pot instrument) player, Udupa. Now, this so called master was in his early 70's. He started playing when he was about 4, but probably played about 6 hours a day, like his father did, and his father's father. So that means, according to my calculations and detailed statistical analysis, that by the time he was 9, he was already an expert mridangam player. What did he do for the other 60 somewhat years of his life? He played. Like crazy.
I was blown away. This master's head and shoulders didn't move more than an inch in any direction, but his hands were a total blur. He was just casual. Like a stroll in the park. He would even look around once in a while like he was bored during the performance. Apparently that's just part of the culture here... a lot of the players did that.
He could play with his right hand far faster than I can play with both of my hands playing the uduboo. I honestly couldn't comprehend what was going on, but I could hear the fast, sharp, clear whacks of each of his fingers hitting the head of the drum.
Our friend Udupa is in his late 20's, so he's got tons of energy. But at the end of the performance, Udupa was the one sweating up a storm trying to keep up with this guy in his late 70's. The master? He hadn't sweat a single bead. Amazing.
The last photo above is Udupa.
By the way... The reason this blog is called skim India is because I went skimboarding in India. Make sense? It was pretty interesting. The only person there was a fisherman who had a tiny little hut on the beach, and he came up to me and told me he did gymnastics. I wasn't quite sure what that had to do with my skimming... I suppose that my level was reaching acrobatic proportions? He also told me that he fishes with a net, but the fishing was no good this day. When he left, he said, "good bye, friend." Nice guy.
I've added a few more photos for kicks, too. Enjoy.
2 comments:
Yo Dave,
Just having a look at your Skim India page, very wild mate. I just thought that I would drop a line to say that we are missing the Neptune boys already and have already thought about the next trip. Take it easy on the sub continent and don't mention the cricket and Australia while you are there. Young Kirk and old Mike also send there best wishes. Talk to you soon.
Best regards
Chris, Yuki and Kai
Arresting pictures, esp. the one of the bullock and the bus behind it! The subtle impression is of an India caught between time warps works well. Hope to see more of your take on the insanity of life here! :-)
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