Concert time

Maya, 'dropping' after her shopping to recharge the batteries for the evening concert

We've been in Bangalore for eight months now and we have never been to a classical Indian music concert, so we decided that having Granny Amma and Thatha with us was the perfect excuse to go. We found something we liked the look of in TimeOut Bengaluru (though we were slightly concerned it may never happen as last time we tried to go to an event we saw in the magazine, it was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, on the wrong day!). However, luck was on our side this time and we listened to some fabulous Carnatic music with wonderfully named instruments like the veena, mrindangam and kanjira.

Maya was in great spirits as she'd had a good cat nap earlier on, half-on and half-off the sofa (oh, how I wish I could sleep like that) and spent the whole time at the concert jumping up and down in time to the music and running around the back of the hall. Thankfully, it was pretty informal and nobody seemed to mind (at least, I don't think they did....or perhaps they've been cursing us ever since). At one stage, she spent a long time standing next to one elderly gentleman who was drawing something on her hand. Maya loves drawing on her hand so I suppose she was quite happy for someone else to do the same. She kept looking at me and grinning and I thought maybe he was drawing a flower or something equally innocuous. When she returned to her seat, I was quite surprised to see a detailed biro drawing of Jesus on the cross. When I glanced back at the man, he gave Maya and I a knowing look and tapped his nose. Nothing against JC but this was quite...erm...bizarre.

Anyway, it was a great evening and now I'm pleased to say that Maya and Lily have experienced both traditional dance and music from the state of Karnataka. I do wonder how much of such experiences Maya will remember.