Virasat Foundation: Tabla, Sarod and Harmonium

Truly a night to remember!
Unable to make the mainstage concert because I’d be out of town, I was truly honoured by Ganesh Nanda’s invitation to his beautiful home. Ganesh's lovely wife Anita welcomed me with samosas and chai.  I was lavished with Indo Canadian hospitality,  the ethereal refinement of the evening to follow was in sharp contrast to the earthy hilarity of the Indo Canadian Russel Peters Almost Famous concert I’d just attended days before.   Sharing my love of Peters  with other early arrivers I was regaled with impromptu skits of Russell’s best by East Indian men, obviously fans. The men organized the sound system and seating while the women chatted and served food, Their colourful safaris and distinctive gold jewelry fit well with the elegance of the Nanda home .  Everyone pitched in to make the evening unforgettable.
The Tabla players were Ustad Hashmat Ali Khan & Akram Khan.  All bowed to them as they came in, young and beautiful women bowing down and touching the foot of the elder with sincere respect.  The Sarod Players were Pandit Aloke Lahiri and Abhisek Lahiri.  These father and son artists reminded me of Ravi Shankar and his talented daughters.  So much greatness  of music  was a combination of genes and breeding. Watching the speed of hands and fingers of these players that night I thought of thoroughbred stallions whose physical gifts combined with spirit to make them all time world winders. The dexterity and physical skills of these world renowned performers made them akin to Olympic athletes but the heart and soul of their performance raised them to the blessed and divine.  Listening to the music that evening I was transported out of myself, transcended to a loftier place, thrilled by the joy of the experience of man and God uniting.  It was all of that and more.  I was not alone. Glancing around I saw  all around faces filled with rapture and  bodies dancing seated.  It was so  moving yet still in the silences. Perfect refrains of music thousands of years old performed by the finest in this modern Vancouver home.  I thought of Tagore. The heart and soul of this evening was truly divine.  I felt changed at my core, closer to something elusive but true.  What a privilege and honour to be a part of something so extraordinary.
Of course the performances ended all too soon. There were short breaks but time stopped while they played and we all crossed dimensions.  Returning  sometime near midnight we all found  Anita and the other ladies,  had ensured a feast was  waiting for the end of our enchanted journey.  I indulged my palate on fine Indian food,  sitting with my friend Anil enjoying also  the family photographs on one wall.  There was a very young and  dashing Ganesh with his most lovely young  Anita,  babies in arm, babies that  now have grown making children of their own.
The  tabla music of Khan and stringed sarod music of Lahiri is such a gift.  The Virasat Foundation is to be truly thanked for bringing the greatest of India’s artists to Vancouver, Canada.

 

Russell Peters Vancouver

Aim, my favourite political scientist, has a new tenured professorship  in Asian Studies at University of Sydney, Australia.  As a doctor and international consultant, she shrieks and hoots at Russell Peters insane multi cultural Indo Canadian humour. Her husband, a serious consultant in the mining industry, shakes his whole body when Russell Peters lays it all out.  Personally I was in a rare zone of continuing laughter hearing myself outside of myself laughing cackling, coughing, meditatively out of body with continuous unceasing laughter and a shit eating grin on my face that stayed throughout the whole performance.
Typical of edgy Russell, his show opened with a local gay comedian Canucks fan D’arcy Michael whose stoner butt humour was great. I especially his line, (paraphrased) “I got married as a gay man so now don’t get sex anymore except maybe once a year on my birthday.”
New York Jewish comedian, Gregg Rogell followed with dead pan intellectual humour reminiscent of Seinfeld stand up, paraphrased, “I learned the Greeks celebrate a second easter a week later, what’s with that, did Jesus do an encore resurrection just for them?"
But Russell Peters had me laughing from the get go like I haven’t laughed at comedy since we heard Bill Cosby’s Baby Cart Wheels age 12. Masturbation jokes, Paraphrased, “this internet porn is really advanced since my age, we only had pictures and if we wanted movement we had to move them up and down with our hand.’  His facial expression of an Indian mother telling her teen age son that she wants him to become a doctor will remain with me for life. I don’t know how he made that face but it was as priceless as his demonstration of why white men shouldn’t dance.  I’ll never look at a white man dancing again.  I loved his multiculturalism, and his jokes with blacks, and whites, latinos and chinese in the audience. To one asian man, (paraphrased) “what type of asian are you?”  “Chinese’, “That’s the main kind isn’t it?”  He almost has me in tears telling tales of his family in that priceless East Indian accent, because, well, his father sounds just like my father who is Scottish Canadian. Russell Peters, potty mouth not withstanding, (paraphrased)  “It’s a good thing I could get a job in comedy because you know my mouth would have caused me countless problems in the corporate world”   transcends history and culture and brings it home to us what a great and similar human family we are.
So go to U tube, enjoy Russell Peters.  I loved his Goat Farting jokes and stories of Bombay. I’ve  been to Bombay and I love it too.  I’m so glad I made it to this ‘almost famous tour’.  It’s a highlight of the year, a packed Rogers Arena.  Something real good to be apart of. Not spiritual in the ‘god on a cloud’ sense but spiritual in the we all have hearts and genitals and assholes sense.  My chest still hurts from the laughter.