Hip hop and grandmas
It’s the little things that keep you going sometimes. Equally it’s the small things that get you down. But I had a good thing and it brought me up on Sunday. I live in the same area as some of the kids from work. One kid in particular, Mayur lives quite close to me. I didn’t work with this center last year, so maybe if I had seen him I might not have said anything to him, nor him to me. But on Sunday, he called out my name Ana didi! And rushed over to me to see what I was doing, where I was going, how was my weekend. It was very special.
I also got to discover a new aspect of Pune. No matter how long I live here, and how small this “town” is, I always manage to find something new. At the dance congress I met a lot of new people. Two of my new friends came to my capoeira class last week and then invited me to their hip hop class this past weekend. I wasn’t really sure about it. I know they’re great dancers but somehow it’s still in my head that India isn’t huge on hip-hop. There are some select crowds that I saw last year and the year before, but it doesn’t fit in my day-to-day picture of India. I sometimes still get very involved in salsa and then catch myself thinking about India as I used to; my perceptions have changed so much – I think especially lately. I also told an American friend of mine that I’d be going to a hip-hop class and she laughed, as in, yeah right, hip-hop in India. So I went and it was amazing! The folks who give the class are super nice and super talented, one in particular. It was quite impressive. We went out for juice and exchanged jokes and stories afterwards as well. This made us late for our evening activity.
Vineet asked us to come over, everyone, for a music session. His grandmother was in town and he wanted us to meet her. I joked with him when he asked that he loves us so much he wants to show us off. He replied with, “isn’t it obvious?!” His grandmother didn’t speak English and he made me speak with her to talk about capoeira in Hindi. In my opinion it was a disaster, but she understood a little bit and he spoke to her in Hindi so that I’d be able to understand. Some of it got lost in Punjabi but that’s ok. It was really special. Vineet spends most of his time with us so I guess it was important for her to know what he does. Apparently he was doing handstands at home and she wanted to know what craziness got into his head. We played capoeira music, he learned a new song which was applied in the capoeira class. We should keep people’s family members around more often so that they learn more. It was a really sweet and nice experience. She sat there and enjoyed our company for a while and then we left.
Anaseastone's Blog 