Pushy NRI parents

[Nick H]

Well, here we are at a point of agreement!

I can certainly say (err... yet again, probably, but I do mean it!) that I have a great admiration for many of the children that I saw learning and working at music in London, and for the support that their parents gave them, giving up entire weekends. The competitive spirit was there, yes, but there are only so many competitions, so many prizes, and more many children.

If I could have put the secret camera into homes, then I'm sure I would have had some shocks --- but it is my experience of life in general, cross-culture, that getting to know people better involves finding out stuff that is not on the surface, stuff some of them would rather not have people get to know. I do believe that most of them were sincere, and that most of the children, whether or not they were really forming a love of carnatic music (quite a lot of the mridangam boys didn't mind admiting they found it boring, and even some of the really good ones had no time for the alapana as anything else but time off from playing!) they did enjoy there classes and their participation.

EDIT: there was a nice typo --- '...they did enjoy their lasses'; I added the c.

[cmlover]

It may be appropriate to conclude this thread with a minor modification of the advice of Parmacharya to the world at-large!

maitrIm bhajata, akhila hrit jaitrIm |
Atmavad Eva putrAnn api pashyata |
yudhham tyajata, spardhAm tyajata |
tyajata parEShu akrama-AkramaNam ||

(Let friendliness win over the hearts of all victorious!
May they see their children as themselves!
Give up fights; give up competition!
Give up attacking and overpowering others!)

shubhamastu


Mod note: Closing this topic on that high note for now. If there is a huge outcry to open this topic up again, we will do so then.