**June 14th 2015
**There were a two weekends in June that went by without any classes because either Guruji was busy / I was tied up with some work. June 14th weekend was very hectic for me as I was involved in coding a Metropolis Hastings Sampler from scratch. The paper I was trying to implement had a very complicating sampling scheme and hence I could not take time off for Sitar.

**June 21st 2015
**Guruji was out of station for June 21st weekend of June and hence the class was cancelled.

**June 28th 2015
**When the classes resumed on fourth weekend of June, my fingers were rusty and I could not play Malkauns properly. Well as they say, Music plays second fiddle to no one. It was really painful to get back to playing normal stuff. In any case, I had practiced the BIG taan and was ready to show it to my Guruji. My Guruji was not at all impressed with me. He told me a stern voice that I needed to put in more hours.

**July 5th 2015:
**It was Guruji’s birthday and I guess he was really in a hurry.He heard me play Malkauns, corrected me at a few places and called the day off. I guess he was in no mood to teach or play Sitar Smile.

**July 12th 2015:
**Guruji taught me Malkauns Jhala and told me to practice it. He thinks that I am good at Jhala but pathetic at meend. The Jhala notes were standard Malkauns notes and I learnt it quickly. I felt good that my fingers could learn them very fast. I am also curious as to what makes my fingers reluctant to learn meend ? May be I need to practice more and give my muscle memory some more time.

**July 19th 2015:
**July 12th  - July 18th 2015 was one of the most productive weeks. I had practiced the entire composition and composed two new taans that were decently long enough. These taans were not the plain vanilla taans but were a little more intricate. When I played them before Guruji, he was happy and said that I should continue composing my own taans. However he cautioned me that I need to improvise and not try to be too methodical. Guruji asked me to perform at an event in August and I was reluctant to play. I told him that I wasn’t confident enough to play in front of an audience. I guess it was not the lack of confidence, but more about my reluctance to meet and talk to others. I have seen this tendency of mine become stronger and stronger in the last few years. I am perfectly at ease with myself and do not feel any need for external company. Sometimes this tendency of mine, scares me as I think there is something wrong with me. Sometimes I feel its ok and that’s the way I am. Better not to act like somebody else when I am really a different kind of person.  In any case, since my Guruji was insistent that I play at the event, I thought it is better that I play a few more taans. I learnt two  taans from Guruji that were totally new variations of the Malkauns notes.  They were beautiful to hear and somehow my fingers were picking the patterns fast enough.

I am looking forward to tomorrow’s class. Guruji said he would teach me vilambit, the slow paced part of a raaga. My Dad got hold of an old book from his reading shelf and asked me to read it. The book was written in Hindi and it had valuable points for playing Alaap and Vilambit. I have not ready any hindi text for the last 15 years I guess.Needless to say I will be able to read it slowly. My plan is to read the book slowly and try to translate a part of it in English. May be I will post them on this blog after I have internalized the learnings.