Review: Modern India

In class, we watched a dvd that explained the culture of India. Over a billion people live in the country. There are 28 states in India, and the capital is Mumbai. In the cities, the streets appeared dirty and busy. You can find venders everywhere you look; on the streets, on the train, everywhere. There is virtually no middle class; the people are either dirt poor or extravagantly rich. In the central and north, traditions are different compared to the south. In the central and north, people believe the best people become cows in their next lives, so they do not eat beef unlike the south. Also on the video, we watched a few performances of Debashish Bhattacharaya. Debashish Bhattacharaya is an Indian classical musician who plays the lap slide guitar. He was born into a musical family in Kolkata, and it became apparent that he was skilled at a young age. His parents, both traditional Indian vocalists, gave him a basic understanding of music and began strumming a guitar at age three, when his father gave him a full-size Hawaiian lap steel guitar. He made his debut at the ripe age of four on All Indian Radio, in Calcutta. At the age of nine, he left his parents for ten years of study under the pioneer of Indian slide-guitar Brij Bhushan Kabra. At age twenty, he was awarded the President of India Award for winning the National Music competition of All India Radio. His originality as a musician has earned him global admiration, and he has performed on networks all over the world. Today, he has more than 2000 students in India and other countries, and thousands of musicians, music directors, teachers, and followers who have been led to the new language of old traditional Indian music of Debashish. He also invented his own slide-guitars, unique to his compositions, which he calls the “Trinity of Guitars”. Plus, he opened a new Universal School of Music in Kolkata, India, where he teaches students from all over the world the principle universal form of Indian music and special course of guitar. His most popular albums, Mahima Bob