Performance Day Again

After a bit of a sleep-in Freya did her morning practise to get ready for the evening performance at a large public Sahaja Yoga Meditation programme in the centre of Hyderabad. The family were very sweet and accommodating, as we took over their living room for dance practise. Harshid’s Sister Puja took me out for a spot of sari blouse ordering and shopping. The tailoress lives just around the corner and has a 24 hour turn-around. Our lady hosts just love seeing me in a sari, and were determined to get me some blouses, so that I can wear their favorite dress. I had already had one blouse made up elsewhere, but was not too happy with the fit, and so I had left the rest of the sari blouses to be made up when I find the right tailor. We also had to get some material for some of the blouses, so we went to a big 4 story department store Kalamandir, where we got perfectly matching blouse materials.

Puja was telling me how she got accosted near her school a few days back. Somebody asked her for directions, and as she pointed to the road he got out a razor blade and cut two of her fingers. He then escaped in his car, where the numberplates had been covered over. Otherwise he would have easily been tracked down. She said she bled a lot, but luckily the cuts were superficial. She had a tetanus injection, as well as antibiotics just in case. One had to be very careful…

Puja then took me to a bead shop which was like a candy shop for me. All kids of stunning beads and sequins in all sorts of shapes were lining the shelves – supplies of all kinds for fancy embroidery. The sewing threads were beautiful, especially the mixed metallic colours and were fine enough to be used for sewing on beads. You purchase everything by weight, and 10 grams of beads were 4 rupees; the equivalent amount of beads in Australia would cost at least 70 rupees. the sewing threads were 11 rupees, and a similiar quality in Oz would cost at least 150 rupees. So I went a bit crazy, as usual, buying many different sequins and lovely embroidery threads. We then rushed home as it was already 2.30, and after lunch we got Freya ready for her dance performance in the evening. Miraculously we were ready to leave home at the time we were supposed to be at the venue – this seems to be the norm with us. Sandeep had wisely told us to be ready one hour earlier than the real time – he knows us all too well, but it does seem that nothing ever starts on time here, and no matter how late we are we always end up being early!

Sandeep kindly informed me in the car, that he had also nominated me with the organizers to sing just one song. So I was madly practising the only Telugu song I know in the car on the way to Hyderabad’s Public Gardens. Sandeep helped me along with pronunciation, which was great. When we were arrived we were warmly greeted and the very sweet local Sahaja Yoga practitioners who we had already met in Nizamabad, were so exited to see us. We went to the dressing room to get Freya’s make-up done. After a while spent waiting, they called me to the stage to sing. Before I went on stage the presenter said to me very clearly to sing only if I was confident…I know many songs in Hindi and only one song in Telugu, which I was far from confident with. Also my voice was really bad and out of practise after my cough and it felt really rough. So I said yes I am confident (not), and walked onto the stage. I started up and the keyboard player and tabla player accompanied me nicely. It was great to see the look on the audiences faces, as they realized what language I sang in. I got a great applause, and believe me the Indians are not keen clappers. It was far from my best performance, but the novelty factor got me through. Then I was kindly whisked off the stage, as there were many acts queuing up for their chance to shine. Thanks to Sandeep’s perseverance, Freya got a prime spot just before the main meditation, and danced her 1 item, which was very well received indeed. The tabla player came up to me afterwards and said You sang well, but your daughter is really amazing. I told him to please tell her that, as she sometimes feels this mother/daughter competition with me. So he complimented her nicely, and so many people expressed their wish to see more, and invited us to their next meeting. We stayed for the lovely meditation, which Santosh and Srikanth really enjoyed.