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     4 hrs.later,somewhat refreshed, we are gathered in the lobby to be driven to the venue. The streets are full. I'm handed the video camera and I shoot out the window. Right down the street there is a small shrine and I see a man in front placing what appears to be a package with flowers on it inside. There seems to be someone inside receiving it, though I can't make out his face. There is tons of incense burning in front. Inside there's a statue. I think it is Shiva. It's definitely not Krishna for the statue is not blue.
  Within 5 blocks I realize that the cities of India are so incredibly polluted as to be nearly unbearable! Fumes choke you; your eyes run and you wonder how anyone can live like this.
  The venue is called the JN Tata Auditorium. It's actually a hall of science. It's named for the largest maker of vehicles in India, the Tata. If they could just convince Mr. Tata to make his vehicles run a little cleaner they should name the whole city after him! This is where we will eat lunch and dinner during our stay in Bangalore.
  We enter the main hall to check out the room and the P.A. It looks like the room holds around 500 people. The P.A.(those of you who don't know what a P.A. is, it stands for public address system which is rather self-explanatory) is actually pretty good. I'm not sure the same can be said for the sound man.He's a very thin Indian fellow who looks like he's afraid to touch the board. We try to talk to him and find out he doesn't speak much English. Luckily Mark, the bass player, is a good sound technician and will smooth out the rough spots.
  Wait! I haven't introduced the main characters!.......

Mark Dann - studio owner and bass player extrodinaire. Mark is the person responsible for me being here and one of the best musicians it's been my pleasure to play with. I met Mark on a Bobby Syvarth gig(actually I was doing sound at a club in NJ called Kroghs). I briefly considered not bringing my violin, partly because I knew I'd have my hands full doing sound and partly because the business beast in me didn't want to get roped into doing double duty for half the pay. You see I've spent a long time getting people to respect the fact that when I play I expect to get paid. Some people think it's a hobby. Not to get long winded on this but I wouldn't ask my plumber friend to come over and fix my toilet for free. Catch my drift? Nuff said. The gig started out being a nightmare. Sound was all fucked up and I struggled to get it right. In the end I wound up bringing and playing my violin. It seems like that's how my life goes. One seemingly inconsequential decision is made that leads to something far greater. For had I listened to my inner business beast and left my fiddle home I never would have played with Mark and what transpired next would have never happened. At the end of the show Mark is sitting on top of his amp in Lotus position(how appropriate!)and said, "Are you busy between April 12th and April 29th?" I said, "I don't know. What'd you have in mind?". He said, "You want to go to India?".I said something like "....that sounds interesting.", dismissing it out of hand because I had prior commitments. I was going into pre-production on an album I was producing by an artist named Dave MacDonald and also had 4 gigs with Kings In Disguise not to mention hosting David Olney at Kroghs and my open mikes I host every Weds. at Kroghs. And who was going to take my place on the radio show? I told him I'd think about and get back to him. I wanted to go. I could see myself going. I couldn't afford to go. Or was it I couldn't afford not to go?
  Martha (my wife) said if I wanted to go we'd find a way to make it happen. As usual she encourages me in every way. The only way I could see doing it was going into debt, but so be it. Ultimately what made me decide to go was the overall, "Hell yeah you should go!" I got from my band mates and something Allison Goeslling said to me. She said,"When you're 80 years old and looking back on your life are you gonna say 'Man I'm glad I started that record and did those gigs...'or are you gonna say,'Man am I glad I went on that adventure in India'..?"
I couldn't argue it and so thanks to Mark Dann, I'm here!

Tad Weiss - Tad's a singer/songwriter from Woodstock, NY (a rare native!). He writes great songs and has a strong voice, plays good guitar and is a published author. He's a good egg who's very talkative and funny when he's in the mood and very quiet when he's tired. We were sworn to pummel him as soon as he broke out in his patented Indian accent in front of any real Indians.

Phil Void - Phil is the Dharma Bums! He writes all the songs, lives the life(so to speak) and seems to know everyone that you could know in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. He raised all the money for one of the temples in Dharmsala. He is a great contradiction. Buddhist by choice but there are aspects of him that seem anything but. I admire him for his relentless pursuit of promoting the Dharma Bums. He's quite a character; larger than life and not afraid to tell you all about it. He knows most of what you need to know about surviving India.

And now back to our story.....

  We see the venue and have a catered lunch. The food is wonderful with names I've never heard. I could get used to this. I don't eat much. I'm nervous about getting sick so I stick to vegetarian. My logic is that the less I eat(meat especially) the less likely it will be that I'll get sick. We also get buffet style Indian breakfast at the Atria Hotel where we are staying which is also top notch. I introduce myself to an older Indian women who is the stage manager. She is very sweet and helpful.
  We eat, meet the people we're supposed to meet and head back to the hotel. We have a car and driver at our disposal and a young Tibetan guide named Namgyal, which means "Skyking". I sing the theme to the old tv show....."Out of the western sky comes...SKYKING!!"He, of course, has no clue but laughs anyway.
  We are in the zombie-like grip of jetlag and must go once again to the arms of Morpheus to battle the effects. The must see act on this nights bill is the Bauls of Bengal. They're a group of religious anarchists that sing devotional songs that combine Sufism and Hinduism. India has changed since Gandhi but it seems his message of acceptance is still being spoken.
  We are gathered again at 6pm and it's off to the auditorium. They will serve food for the artists after the show. I was already hungry. Turns out we wouldn't wait that long.
  First up was a veena orchestra. The veena is the little sister of the sitar except it's played with the instrument on the ground. It was wild seeing 18 women playing veena's with their guru sitting on a raised platform in the center playing and directing them.
  Next a duet from France(harp, guitar and occasional lute). They played nothing but love songs. They were good but I failed to see the relevance at a sacred music festival.
  Then we got word they were serving dinner early for the artists. Our stomachs called and we answered.
  We sat back down just in time for the beginning of the Bauls from Bengal. They spread out a huge blanket and introduced the first Baul. He meanders out looking like a gaunt Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, all robes and flower garlands. The scene is made complete by the big incense pots they lit. He says a few words in Hindi and strums a single stringed instrument called a parsa. He's got just a few teeth in his mouth and looks really stoned. He starts to sing, gesturing with his left hand and strumming the parsa with his right. Then he comes forward and goes lotus on the blanket. Next they introduce the tabla player and he comes out and starts tuning up his drum with a silver hammer. Then they introduce the the last two Bauls; a blind man led by another younger, more intense looking one. I think the intense one is a Sufi. He definitely sings in the Quwalli/Sufi style. They get seated and launch into the first song. It's amazing how much sound they make. The young intense one plays a very unusual instrument called a queeka(I think that's what it's called). It's a drum with the top head cut off. A piece of bone is connected to two gut strings that pass into the drum and connect to the bottom head. Played with a huge pick; pulling on the bone changes the pitch. It has a mesmerizing buzzing kind of sound. He starts singing with this incredibly resonant voice. I was later told that the songs they sing use the five elements; earth, fire, wind, water and space/time as spiritual analogies. I found I really didn't need to understand the language to get the picture. They were fascinating! After 2 long numbers the young guy turns it over to the older blind guy and he proved to have the best voice.
  We later heard a story about the opening ceremonies. The Bauls apparently gate crashed the stage to sing for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Security tried to stop them but HH said,"No, let them play."And they did. It seems after they did a song for him the blind one walked right up to HH and prostrated himself in front of him. The Dalai Lama stood up and went to him,picked him up and kissed his hands and cheeks. The blind Baul cried and they hugged. It was all quite spontaneous and very moving, I was told.
  They finished up their show by setting up mikes at the front of the stage. They go up from the lotus position they were in and sang and danced ecstatically. It was one of the most inspiring performances I'd ever seen!
  Afterwards we met them and had chai and then it was back to the hotel to sleep in a bed for a whole night for the first time in 40 hours.