Menoculayshunal; Musicalism, Ashram Style 2

To be fair, the initial part of this post is not directly musical or performance-related, but the task undertaken was a big outlet for seva and discussion. What is more, it provided an opportunity for verbal revision as we bantered about the texts and chanted and memorised whilst attending to the main project.

What was that, exactly? Refurbishing the library and creating a database for lending as we went. This was directly in my skill-set. For my computing degree back in the 1980s, when computers were still kept in wardrobe sized cabinets, another student and I analysed the needs of the college library and its lending system and wrote a program to improve the management of that. (That program stood working for some twelve years after we graduated!)

Now, I did NOT write the software for this particular task. It was decided to utilise the existing generic database available from the main office. It was not perfect, but better than the manual system that was still being worked for the library until our batch decided to do something about it! It also meant that there could be multiple inputs using the laptops that quite a few had. I and three other ex-ITers were elected team leaders, and we organised four groups. We all took turns emptying the shelves, writing the required data onto forms ready for input, computer input, and then resetting the books on the shelves. There was a significant amount of cleaning involved as we went, for it became clear a spring clean was a distant memory for this room!

We took permission to have the books on the floor - usually a 'no-no!'

First, the paper entry...

...then the data entry! (Br Mandip was one of my co-leaders).

Having volunteered and approached the acharya with our plan well laid out, we were granted an entire week free of course study to get the bulk of the work done (and we managed that!), then it was up to whoever wished to continue after that week to complete the task. The team leaders/organisers and about fifteen other students continued over another six or seven weeks, and we left that place pristine and organised down to the last Dewey number!

On our first February at Sandeepany, we were afforded the delight of the inaugural Naada Bindu Kalaateet. A cultural weekend which the paying public could attend and which took place on the roof terrace of the office building. One or two Hindustani offerings, but mainly Carnatic music, and it was magical! Even if I wasn't going along to one of the sets, I could hear everything from my room - or go to my own building's terrace and watch from there. Mostly, though, I did go along, for tropical spring nights set alive with bright lights and lively, heart-searing sounds is simply not to be missed.

The word kalaateet means timeless, and that is surely how it felt that weekend! Sublime. There have been nine further concerts since that one, the last happening in February 2020... (we all know what happened after that.) Again, I do have some personal footage from that first event, but very poor quality, so let me complete this post and give you a taster from the promo film of the 10th Kalaateet, held at the home of Naada Bindu on the Kolwan ashram...