我的第一次表演

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宜蘭傳藝中心這陣子有很多的表演.我也參了一腳.與Waka&Yo印度音樂聯盟一起表演.練習了很久.但是表演那天還是表現得不好.或許太緊張.第一場表演.手指流著汗.腦袋一片空.耳朵也自動關了起來.在我旁邊的speaker我完全沒注意到它的存在.第一首曲子我們表演Raga Yaman.本來是我比較擅長的Raga,結果表現很遜.好險有Waka與Yo在.

第二場與第三場我就彈奏Bhupali.也是我自己本身很喜歡的Raga.
表現的有好一點.但是聲音還是彈得不夠清楚.
Waka與Yo除了在旁邊協助我與Minco的表演外.他們也表演了好好聽的Raga Bhiravi. 最後一首我們一起表演Tagore Song.好好聽.表演完後.鬆了口氣.回家後.還是不斷的練習.希望有一天自己可以不用老師的協助然後彈得更好.

謝謝Waka, Yo 和 Minco!! 一起練習啦!

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Unpredicable India last week @ Santiniketan

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Finally I got the time to finish uploading the photos of our trip to India. I have been very busy taking photos and practicing the sitar recently.


Santiniketan is definitely a sweet place to be. Although the mosquitos there were fiercious. I was at the cafe where I felt  a lot of mosquitos were attacking my feet at the same time. As Ploy said " new comer!". Yes. I was new there and probably tasted exotic. I ended up with feet like Micky Mouse.

This is a great place for having a cup of coffee with friends.Even the dog was waiting for a cup!

We had coffee with our friend Soukata who's learning Japanese and speaking it fluently.

Yo took me to this lovely restaurant a little far away from the town and on the way there we were surrounded by fresh air, trees, and fire bugs. 

I do miss Indian food very much. I ate so much!

while we were eating, we had power cuts, and mosquito attack,  but this didn't stop us from enjoying the food. The coffee we ordered tasted funny though. I think they gave us tea instead.

We visited our friend Thinley who's from Tibet and studying in Santiniketan.He made us lovely Tibetan food. Truely delicious!

cycling is the best way to go to places even though our  tires broke several times

Always happy to go to see Guruji. Sweet family! Pinkydi makes delicious food! My favourite is her fish curry!

old style tabla machine at Guruji's

so many switches I never knew which one was for what

Kazu-san invited us to her house for dinner on the roof top.I love her kitchen!

It was cool and relaxing on the rooftop. There were a lot of fire bugs flying between trees to trees, branches to branches. Kazu-san made some simple Japanese dishes! There were light yet tasty! I miss her food too!

our trip seemed so short. I felt really sad leaving Santiniketan. Truely a peaceful place with kind people.

Tinku the owner of the guest house we stayed at. A very kind man with super kind heart.He's going to be a father soon!

At the train station heading back to Kalkatta.

everyday I wrote about my trip in India. Everything I saw, everyone I met, all the great things I had never encountered before.I wrote a lot so that I wouldnt' forget them.

We expected monsoon in India but it rained so little during the time we were there. When we got back to Kalkatta , it was pouring rain and here you can see a little flood! 

Back to the noisy and crazy Kalkatta. I was less frustrated, but still wished I was still  in Santiniketan.  We left India unwillingly and we were chatting about this trip so much. When we arrived Taipei, I found it so quiet, clean and peaceful, which was a strange feeling.


 I can't find the perfect word to describe India. The advertisement says " Incredible India!". It's for sure. But Yo says  it's more like " unpredicable India". I agree with him.  You can't expect what you are going to see, who you are going to meet, what's going to happen. It's always full of surprises there. I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to visit India and I believe that everyone should go to India at least once in their life. What should you bring to India? An open heart and some toilet paper.

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Unpredicable India Day 11- Day 17 @ Santiniketan

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地點:和平鄉
腸胃狀況:比較好了
身體狀況: 正常!

location: Santiniketan
stomache condition : much better
physical condition: normal


It was very hot in Kolkatta! I was always thirsty! One thing I really wanted to have was soda popsicle which I couldn't find anywhere. Yo spotted this ice cream vendor nearby and saw some pictures of the ice creme. One of them looked like a soda popsicle. I was sooo happy and quickly bought it. I didn't know what flavour it really was but it tasted like play-doh! We both felt sick eating it.

However, I was excited about leaving Kolkata! There was only so much of craziness I could bear. We took a taxi to the train station.On the way there, I saw all kinds of people. People in suits, people in traditional clothes, people with shattered clothes lying on the ground on the street etc, this always made me think a lot.

It was packed with people at the train station. One thing I really liked about India was that at the train station, there was often a ticket window just for ladies! There were always long queues at the 'normal' tickets windows. And I then noticed that only men were buying tickets! Yo asked me to go to the ladies one so I did! Within 3 minutes I got the tickets!! I was quite happy for some weird reason. In India I was often happy with little things. In Taiwan buying a ticket is easy as clicking your fingers, but I was never happy about it.

outside the station

fans on the train! In a way I felt I was inside a spaceship

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 I really enjoyed watching people selling things on the train. You could find so many things! Food, toys, books, wallets, tissue, scissors, snacks, and things I didn't even know what they were.And everyone had their style of selling things, their gestures, the tunes they spoke. It was very interesting and fun to watch. We did buy some snacks and a  toy.

view from the train

Entertaining ourselves on the train

 

on the way to Santiniketan

HERE WE ARE!!!
But to go to Santiniketan we had to pass Bolpur. It was crazy as well. There were many cars but more rickshaws and bicycles and of course many animals. This time there were more goats!

When we arrived our destination. It was like entering to another world. It was so much quieter, fresher air and less hectic. To me it was heaven!

This is where we stayed.Tinku the owner is a friend of Yo's. He was so happy to see him again and he welcomed me to his beautiful guest house.

the bus money collector's bag I bought in Kolkatta

 The moment we went inside our room. We started making it like our home



We took a rest  in our sweet home, and I felt like practicing the sitar because we were going to have a lesson with our Guru ji the next day. I wanted to do well. So I sat on the bed, enjoyed the quietness and the birds singing outside and then started to play.  Yo decided to wash some clothes and asked me if I needed to wash anything. I thought the T-shirt I was wearing was filthy, so I would like to have it washed.Yo threw me a clean top. I closed the curtain nearby and when I was picking up the clean top, I touched something really soft! It made me jump a little and when I looked closer, it was a gecko! I screamed and flew right to Yo. He just kept on laughing. I couldn't calm down for quite a while. I hoped I didn't kill it. Where did it come from? I had no idea. Probably it was hiding in the curtain and when I closed it, it fell off. Yo said again " Unpredicatable India!!"

Having lesson with Guruji!

We went to visit Kazu san. A lovely Japanese lady who has lived in India for quite a while.
She was very kind to us and made us delicous food with the vegetables she planted in her garden.

This is her porch. I loved it.

Many mosquitos in Santiniketan! I got bitten on my feet later on and they were swollen like Mickey Mouse's feet.

 Yo and Kazu san chatting on the terrace.

 beautiful sunset!

One of my favourite Indian sweet - san Papdi

early morning in Santiniketan!

 Yo went to the barber

a corner inside the barber shop

no head cow!

It's such a sweet dog. It was really friendly and it was like smiling at me.

I think this was taken in Bolpur when we went there to get a few things

I immediately fell in love with Santiniketan. The food was amazing! I made a lot of new friends already and I felt so much relaxed there. 

To be continued..........................

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Unpredicable India Day 9 - Day 11 @ Kalkatta

地點:加爾各答
腸胃狀況:不太好
身體狀況: tired

location: Kolkatta
stomache condition : not good!!
physical condition:  tired

We left Varanasi in the afternoon, I said goodbye to the cow that's always outside our guest house. I watched the Ganga River and the kids swimming in it, wondering will I come back here again? I really hope so.

We passed the crazy traffic with rickshaw to the train station. It was a nightmare but glad we got on the train soon.

On the train sitting next to us was an old grandpa. He liked to talk a lot! Both Yo and I were tired and  needed to rest. The old man was just very happy sharing things with us. Sometimes he asked  questions such as, do you have any sisters and brothers? are you married? In Japan you have elephants? you have mangos? and so on. At first we were a bit annoyed, but later on we realized that he just needed company.There was a point when I didn't know if I should laugh or be serious because he talked to us like he was going to die soon, like the last words from the grandpa. He was actually a very very sweet man!! I wish him all the best.


I was thinking that my body was immune to India virus. I didn't get sick and was eating a lot. However, on the way back to Kalkatta we ordered some food on the train because we were very hungry.With the extremely cold AC and bad food. We both got sick. It seemed like a long way back to Kolkatta when feeling sick.

this is what we had!!

Even though I was sick I still enjoyed the time on the train

When we arrived Kolkatta, we just looked for the guest house that was nearby. We were exhausted from lacking of sleep and sickness. We just needed a room that had a toilet and beds! This was the ceiling of the room.( like the birthday cake paper plates).The door of the room was hard to close and it wasn't a cosy space. We decided to leave the next morning.

Since we didn't like the first guest house we went. Yo and I decided to go to the one he used to go to. 

The balcony of the guest house.

the view from the balcony! back to the craziness again

I loved the tea in India. We drank many cups everday

You can also buy some snacks to go with your tea.I loved the tea shops by the street!

feeling sick or not! You just have to eat the delicious Bengali food! Its soooooooooo good! Fish curry is one of my favourite!!

We often ate with hands and I think it tasted even better when you eat with hands.
We spent only a few days in Kalkatta just to buy some clothes and gifts for friends and we were heading to our next destination.. a place that's keeping part of my heart!



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