Moments

So this is about an excursion to get my old old tabla fixed. This tabla has been unused for over 10 years, and thanks to my Mom's chronic tendency to accumulate stuff, has been kept in a shelf for all that time. Inspired by all the fusion and tablatronic and tabla-beats-science stuff I've been listening too, I have decided to bring the thing over to the US.

The place I am looking for is called Ganesh Vadyalaya (vadya = musical instrument, alaya = home, as in Him-alaya = home of snow). It's supposedly located in a public Municipal market close to my place. We park the car and dive into the market looking for it.

Finally! The store is not one you shall see on the internet. In fact, it's likely they've never heard of the internet. Not that they care, they seem to be known by word-of-mouth. It's just a little space on the corner of the market, surrounded by vegetable vendors. Here's the store owner examining my poor neglected tabla, and trying to figure out what does NOT need fixing.

After negotiating the details of the tabla fixing (which shall cost me a whopping $15, to replace practically everything but the body; a brand-new tabla would cost about $40), the store owner is kind enough to show me a few details of tabla manufacture. His three craftsmen gladly oblige to pose for my following videos.

• Preparing the body: The body of the tabla is carved from a hollowed out piece of wood, and the straps at the side are used to stretch the leather surface. These are painstakingly inserted and placed by hand, as the video demonstrates.
  
  

• Preparing the striking leather surface: The leather for the surface is cured and cut into the right shapes for the left and right halves of the tabla. Part of the process involves soaking the leather in water.

• Coating the surface: Once the leather is placed, a black compound (made with charcoal, iron filings and glue) is applied to the surface and ground into shape using a stone implement.

Whew, that was quite an experience! And I need to chill out...what's better than a local chaiwalla, and a hot cup of "special" masala chai? Ok, so now you, my gentle non-mumbaikar reader, you shall be introduced to the glossary of ordering ek cup chai in Mumbai.

• Masala chai: with assorted spices in it. I've never bothered to ask what those spices might be, and I suspect, neither does anyone else. I suspect ginger and cinnamon to be involved, as well as tea leaves a few days old (just kidding!). But to really emphasize that you need your spice, you might add "adrak maarke, boss" i.e. throw that ginger in, buddy!
  
• Quantities: There are exactly two sizes Mumbai chai is available in. The chai cup is a glass vessel (see pic), with a ridge or a cut a bit above the center. Hence the two sizes obviously are: full and cutting.
• Extras: The only legitimate extra is to ask the vendor to make the chai "special", also pronounced "speshal", "ispeshal" or "peshal". This usually entails throwing in a ton of extra sugar and extra spice and extra milk, with a few extra tosses of the chai.

So now, intrepid reader, you are fully aware of how to get your chai fix in Mumbai. So next time you're in here, go for it: "ek cutting peshal chai boss, adrak maarke".

How much is that gonna cost, you ask? 2 rupees, 50 paise for 1 full cup of kickass chai. (For those interested in the math: 1 USD = 45 INR). Starbucks, anyone?

The impossible has happened, three consecutive bright-n-sunny days here in the city of rain! Nothing can keep me indoors when such miracles occur, so there I was speeding away from downtown in search of the elusive and reputed international district aka chinatown.

Seattle's Chinatown has a long history, with Chinese laborers being brought to the US to work on railroads. Later on there were huge Japanese, Vietnamese and Filipino communities which were established. Chinatown is located somewhat south of downtown. Taking a walk along any of the numbered avenues (1st through 8th) will take you down there. And how do you know that you've arrived? When you find one of these positively cute dragons perched atop the street lamps :)

The international district is mostly Chinese, it reminds me a lot of the Chinatown in LA; definitely not as bustling as the ones in NYC or SF. But it is charming, with lots of restaurants and other quaint little Chinese stores. There also seems to be a whole lot of Japanese stores around here. I ran into an entire little mega-store with everything Japanese, from groceries to cute little gift items (the Japanese do know something about that - fragrant greeting cards, anyone?) and even an entire bookstore dedicated to Asian culture, with 3 of the shelves full of Haiku books!

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Pike Place Market

The Pike Place Public Market is probably one of the most interesting walking tours around Seattle. The Pike Place fish market is supposedly "world-famous", with the vendors tossing huge salmon across to each other and shouting random slogans in unision. Another place of pilgrimage is the oldest Starbucks coffee (yes it all started here). There are a bunch of interesting food stores nearby, a Russian piroshky place (supposedly some kind of stuffed dish), and a great local cheese factory. The marketplace also abounds in exotic cultural stores such as a Polish Pottery place, or a Tibetan Herbal apothecary (both below), and tons and tons of other really exoticized stuff. On the whole, the area is really touristy, and has an aura (real or artificial?) of historical importance.

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Well, that's my notes for today, but hang on for more updates and pictures. But speaking of the Asian influence in Seattle, here's my own picture of Bruce Lee's grave, which I took some time out to visit this morning. The Lakeview Cemetery is located on Capitol hill, an exceedingly beautiful neighborhood with the most astounding fall colors. The grave itself is close to the top of the hill, with an unbelievable scenic view of Lake Washington. Bruce's son, Brandon, who died young too, in a tragic accident, is interred right next to him. I'm not sure how much the graveyard's inhabitants appreciate the view, but I'm sure you will in the pictures. The story of my visit to the grave had an intriguing epilogue, but that shall be told in a later story :-)
RIP, Little Dragon!

Toronto eloped with San Francisco and Seattle was born. Well, not really. But the city with its lovely waterfront, clean and polished downtown, rolling hills, liveliness does remind me of those other cities. It's nowhere as crowded as NYC though, er...maybe when NYC is on a vacation. It's definitely a beautiful city, especially when it's not cold and rainy!




Why Sleepless in Seattle?

Justifiably enough, Seattle has the reputation for being the Caffeine capital of the US. Starbucks (or is it Starbuckses/buxi/buxen/etc?) abound all around, every block seems to boast of at least one if not two or more coffee shops. Surprisingly enough, all of them are always full! One would imagine that such a caffeine infused population would naturally be sleepless and neurotic enough to find time for melodramatic romance.

The weather was cold and rainy when I first got here, and it can get a little annoying after a bit. It never really pours out here, you see, the rain just diffuses all around you. Usually most people don't even bother with the umbrellas coz they know that wetness is inevitable.

I shall not, however, let that detract from the gorgeous fall colors that adorn the city right now. Here's a lovely instance on the right, as taken from the convention center where my conference is located. Pine trees of multiple hues live in peaceful coexistence with tall buildings and rushing freeways.

The most famous artifact in Seattle, is the so-called Space Needle, one of those massively tall pointless structures which most Freudian psychoanalysts love to salivate over. I happened to have a view from my 11th floor hotel room, and you can see the day and night-time versions right here. Of course, I shall have the egoistic urge to prove my masculinity and climb to the top of that tower before I leave.

And finally, where there's me, can Salsa be far behind? So my first night here found me, yes, absolutely sleepless (hadn't slept the night before), at a salsa ballroom social at the Century ballroom here close to downtown Seattle. Yes, my friend, I braved the chill and the rain and found my fix there!