Egypt Elections - Tail Piece

Tail Piece 1

I love pulling my driver Mehmood's  leg - and knowing that Mehmood is quite religious, I put on a straight face and told him that I am ordering him to vote for Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate.  He reluctantly refused, and said that he will be voting for Fatouh - an independent candidate who is slightly more liberal compared to the orthodox and bearded Morsi.

He then turns to me, and tells me with a straight face : "If Morsi comes to power, all of us will have to take on 4 wives".

And after a very pregnant pause he adds: "I don't think I can afford 4 wives."

1st class Egyptian humour.

Tail Piece 2

I went to the hair cutting saloon today to trim my hair.  After he finished cutting my hair, the barber politely asked me whether I would like a shave (I had a 3 day stubble owing to the long Election weekend).

I thought I will practice my Egyptian humour on him, and told him "No thanks - I am now following in the footsteps of Morsi and am growing a beard", and expected him to smile.

Too late - I realised I had put both feet into my mouth. The room suddenly turned very quiet, and all the 4 barbers looked at me with a very somber expression.

Oh oh - with Morsi topping the 1st round elections, the fear that Egypt might soon turn into a country of bearded men must be causing deep agony in all the hair cutting saloons in the country.

Egypt Elections & After

So the results of the 1st round of the Egypt Presidential elections are out.  The 2 final contestants for the final run-off round are Ahmad Shafiq and Mohamed Morsy.  Many Egyptians perceive Shafik as linked to the old regime - he has been campaigning on the platform of order and stability. The other candidate Morsi - a Muslim Brotherhood candidate - is expected by many secular minded Egyptians to bring about a religious flavour to the government - thereby possibly putting at risk the secular nature of Egyptian society.

Hence for that reason I could not see too much of happiness on display on Cairo streets - Egyptians will now be forced to choose between the 2 extremes, a situation that could only favour Morsi who has a strong party machine working for him.

For a person coming from a chaotic democracy like India, this still seems like a good situation to be in.  Unlike in India, the Egypt Presidential system will not bring about the kind of paralysis and logjam that characterises Indian democracy.  I am sure whoever wins the elections will follow pragmatic policies and work towards strengthening law and order, and putting Egypt economy back into the growth path.

Fingering Techniques for playing Harmonium

Have uploaded a video on Youtube which is my perspective on how to practise the right fingering technique for playing the harmonium.

This is purely an Amateur's perspective on how to add beauty to the playing of the harmonium by using the correct fingering technique. Beauty can be added by using adjacent keys/tones that are not part of the original Raag - but the fingering has to be light and subtle, otherwise it risks ruining the Raag. 

Needless to say it requires lots of practice before it can be used in front of an audience

Palitana Reeds for my Harmonium

I bought my harmonium a few years ago off-the-shelf  from a music store in Bangalore. I was in a hurry, and selected my harmonium in a matter of 10 minutes.  All I checked was whether the harmonium had a good finish, the wood looked good, the sound came out loud and clear, and the keys worked smoothly.

Later I realised that I had not checked the critical component of a harmonium - the brass reeds.  The reeds in my harmonium were "Punjabi" reeds - and because they were of inferior quality, they started going off-tune quickly, and therefore required frequent tuning.  Tuning harmonium reeds is a specialised skill, and done best by a skilled artisan using his ears as the guide (rather than any instrument) - so this became a problem to me as I had to lug my harmonium to India every time any of the reeds went off-tune.

I later found that the best quality reeds were made in Germany - but that German reeds are no longer available since a few decades as harmoniums have gone out of fashion in the West.  To understand how German reeds sound like, and why German reeds are the best, read these posts Why every Harmonium sounds different - C Sharp Tuning and Custom-Made Triple Reed Harmonium.

Among Indian makes, the reeds made in Palitana - a small town in Gujarat - were supposed to be the best.  I wanted to replace the reeds with Palitana reeds - but the problem is that Palitana reeds are in limited supply, and there is a long waiting list. After a great deal of follow-ups (thanks to my dear wife) the reeds were finally procured from the MohanLal company and installed into my harmonium at the Bombay Harmonium Works, Mangalore.

The results are fantastic - the sound is much more mellow and beautiful, and it is a real pleasure playing it and listening to the sound.  The sound will become even better over time as the new reeds gradually "open up" and lose their stiffness with the frequent playing of the instrument.  And because the reeds are made of better quality material, hopefully the reeds will require less frequent tuning.

To hear how my harmonium sounds like now, watch this
.

I am sure this harmonium now will serve me in good stead for a long time to come