Continuing the celebration

Continuing music lessons

On Monday evening, Dhruv and I had our music lessons. Dhruv goes first, from 5:00 – 5:30, and I go from 5:30 – 6:30. I’m really happy with the progress that I’ve made in the last few weeks. In two lessons, I’ve mastered Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, playing it well with both hands. The exercise I was given this week was to learn pieces from Diabelli’s “Theme” and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”. I’m happy to report that I did have them down pat and played them smartly at the beginning of the lesson. Of course, Michael always finds ways to mess with me and burst my little bubble of confidence.

“That’s staccato. You have to play Legato,” he’ll say. And then the next time round I’ll try to concentrate on playing Legato and make mistakes.

When I have both hands working properly in unison, he’ll say, “You have to press the right foot-pedal at the beginning of each section.” And thinking about that will throw all my carefully practiced coordination into a tizzy.

He’s given me “Barcarolle,” the song of Venetian Gondoliers this week. There are two pages of music, and I’ve worked hard at getting it. I’m certainly a slow learner, but I think I’ve figured out a technique to learn a new piece of music, and that’s worked this time.

Visiting Dhruv in School

Tuesday was ‘Open Day’ in Dhruv’s school. Parents were free to stop by the class any time during the day to watch the proceedings. I had a meeting in midtown at 2:00 pm, so I decided to leave home a little early, spend 30 minutes in his class, and then proceed to my meeting. I came into the class as they were finishing up their snack. Dhruv had his back to me when I entered, but one of the other kids saw me and asked in a loud voice, “Who’s that?” and another kid guessed correctly: “That’s Dhruv’s Dad”. That’s the advantage of being only one of two Indian kids in class. Dhruv turned towards me and trying hard not to show too much emotion, just smiled at me. I waved and smiled back.

The snack over, the kids cleaned up and sat down cross-legged for ‘word study’. Dhruv had Manon (the same girl who told him that she loved him in his first week there) sitting next to him, and she was constantly peering over his shoulder at his sheet of paper. I was happy to see that Dhruv would raise his hand when the teacher asked, finished his work on time (we’ve been worried that in an effort to form the letters perfectly, he writes very slowly) and was on top of things. I can understand why his teacher is full of praise and loves him. It was fascinating to watch Dhruv in a different environment – I don’t think my parents ever had such an opportunity when I went to school in India. They could only imagine what their son was doing for 8 hours of the day; we have these occasional opportunities to peek behind the curtain.

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day, and while New Yorkers don’t need an excuse to party, an excuse means they can start early. On my way to my meeting I saw hundreds of revelers on the streets, dressed in the most outrageous green outfits, some of them quite high as early as 2 in the afternoon. Several streets were closed due to the Parade, and that made traffic quite horrible. I was surprised to find my client, a Vice President at a large Investment Firm, wearing a light-green shirt. I could only point to the slightest shade of green on my tie.

Kala, Sandhya’s cousin Vivek, Sandhya and I went out to celebrate around 8 pm. We had asked Maria, an older Ukranian lady who lives in building 40, to come in. Dhruv seems to be getting used to the routine and quite enjoys being with a sitter. Maria apparently even read him a book, which he promptly put on his reading log.

We first walked to Union Square, and went to the Heartland Brewery. The place was surprisingly empty for St. Patrick’s Day evening, and we got a nice table. We tried some of the local brews, which turned out to be excellent. We ordered some appetizers to fortify ourselves, but didn’t stay long – the place was too quiet – we wanted something noisier.

We found what we were looking for down 14th Street – the Blind Pig Pub had a noisy crowd overflowing outside, and promised live ‘Irish’ music within. We paid the cover charge and made our way in to a noisy, crowded pub full of young yuppie-types in various shades of green. The ‘Celtic Cross’ band was playing, and we ordered another round of beers for ourselves. Sandhya and Kala even managed to find a place to sit. The music wasn’t bad – the band had a lot of Celtic instruments, but played music from all over the map, including ‘I Shot the Sherriff.’ It was odd to hear Celtic Reggae!

We left the Blind Pig and hailed a cab, and as I was getting in, I noticed that Vivek had a glass of whiskey in his hand – and he had been drinking beer!

“Where’s that from?” I asked.

“The only Indian girl in the pub bought me this,” he replied.

“Then what’re you doing coming home with us?”

He grinned sheepishly. Sandhya and Kala almost stopped the cab and sent him back, but resisted it because he protested so loudly.

Meeting at the Met and the Big Question

Franco Gonsalves, a former colleague, was in town on Thursday, and he was spending it at the Met. Since I had a meeting with someone on the Upper East Side, I offered to meet him at the Café in the basement of the Met. Over coffee I was waxing eloquent about the impressionist collection at the Met when I got stopped by the Big Question: “Which Museum is better? This one or the Musée d’Orsay?” I must confess I felt a twinge of disloyalty when I hedged “I think they’re both great museums – I haven’t decided if one is ‘better’” but reflecting on it later, I must say I may just be slightly inclined towards the Musée. Now we have to live in Paris next!

It was a special feeling to casually walk into one of the greatest museums of the world, walk past some breathtaking collections to the café, and then to leave without looking (Franco asked me to help him find the Vermeers, so I did take a peek).

Lunch at Jaiya Thai

On Friday, Kala and Sandhya asked me to take a break and join them for lunch at Jaiya Thai, on Third Avenue. We had had Jaiya’s food at Sonia’s placed before, and it is easily the best Thai food that we’ve had in the US. Going there with Kala was a bold move on Sandhya’s part, since Kala owns a place in Thailand and knows her Tom Yums from her Pad Thais. While the Papaya salad was disappointing, everything else was excellent – and Kala said so too.

Brunch at Schiller's

Kala was leaving back to the Bay Area on Saturday, but her flight was in the afternoon, so we decided to go to Schiller’s Liquor Bar for Brunch. I must confess to being rather skeptical, given the name, but the recommendations were so strong that we went. The neighborhood turned out really seedy – lots of graffiti painted walls and chain-link fenced empty lots. The front of the restaurant itself was worse – a glass and wrought iron door guarded a dirty tiled floor that had “Liquor Bar” patterned into the tiles. We opened the second door to a room with an old saloon-style bar, and chairs and tables arranged all around. The mirrors on the walls were long past their glory, and a layer of dust seemed to have settled on any available horizontal surface. We looked at each other again, sure we had come to the wrong place. As we were being seated, we asked the waiter “You do serve brunch, don’t you?” Even after he confirmed, Sandhya asked him again “and you’re famous for your Sticky Toffee Pudding, right?” He smiled and nodded again. He probably gets this reaction a lot.

The brunch was superb – we had Omelets, Huevos Rancheros and Waffles. The servings were small, and served with really tasty house fries. The girls had Martinis too – at 11 in the morning. After all, Kala doesn’t visit every other day… Just to be gluttonous, we ordered a second omelet, and then finished it off with the famous Sticky Toffee Pudding. An excellent end to Kala’s week with us – a week which has been marked by our cutting a cake to celebrate her Birthday (which was in Jan) several times.

Visiting Juilliard

After seeing Kala off in a taxi, we decided to get out of the house and go to the Lincoln Center. This massive complex of institutions houses the famous Juilliard School of Music, and we found that they had an amazing calendar of free concerts throughout the month. At 4 pm there was a Violin / Piano concert as part of the ‘Pre-College Series’, and we decided to try to catch that. We got off the #1 subway line and walked down West 65th Street to the school. As were entered the lobby, and walked up the steep flight of stairs to the reception, we saw large groups of young adults milling about, each one with a different instrument strung over their shoulders. The creative energy that one could sense was probably what makes Juilliard what it is.

The concert was in one of the halls downstairs, and we were a bit early. The violinist and her piano accompanist were going through their pre-concert drills. As they left, we were alone, and I took the opportunity to walk up to the grand piano – and as I had hoped, it was a Steinway. Vivek and I had been scratching our heads for the name of the famous Piano manufacturer with an “S” and couldn’t remember it for the life of us. This was the first time I was seeing a Steinway up close and it certainly looked special. I had to hold myself back from getting too close.

On balance, maybe we shouldn’t have gone. The pre-college program at the Juilliard is for talented young children who are not yet eligible to enroll for Undergraduate programs at the Juilliard. The girl who played the Violin must’ve been 15. Watching her play made me realize how long the journey is. It’s a bit like an Everest mountaineer walking through the Khumbu icefall. If he looks straight ahead at the next step he has to take, he’s fine. If he looks up at the towering peak above him, he’ll likely get intimidated. I’ve looked up – now I have to get back and concentrate on Barcarolle.

Lazy Sunday

We had friends over for dinner on Thursday evening and on Friday, so this has been a week of almost unending partying. We had planned to go to Columbia on Sunday, and have lunch with a friend of a friend. Dhruv woke with a fever, and we decided against pushing our luck, and stayed home. I spent a lot of time working on Barcarole, and think I may have figured it out. I’ve also reconciled myself that I just don’t have what it takes to be in Juilliard. Perseverance? Yes. Talent? Certainly not.