A father and son duo from India, the Mishras, came to play sitar music one evening in my hometown of Bolinas, California. I have been to many concerts of Indian music. Nearly all were beautiful, solemn, meditative events. I was prepared for something similar but the Mishras completely surprised me. Their clear mastery of the classical form and then transcendence of that with brilliant innovation, was riveting.
Thoughts of returning to India had been steeping in the teapot of my brain for months. Maybe years. Probably since the very day I arrived home from my last trip there.
On the night of the sitar performance I was compelled to greet the musicians and had a chance to talk with them briefly. Just by this simple meeting, those thoughts of returning to India were changed into a vision and timeline for my next journey, which included some study of devotional singing at their Music Academy in Varanasi
On this 2009 trip to India. I practiced yoga on the Ganga, stumbled upon a surprisingly accurate Vedic Astrologer in Haridwar, and deeply enjoyed this intimate house concert in Varanasi, which the video below shares a glimpse of.
(This video is number 1 of 4. It shows really lovely sarangi and tabla played by members of the Mishra family and community. Seemingly by magic, my camera batteries didn’t die. )