Dear colleagues and friends,
I hope you are having a lovely and restful Christmas break with family and friends. I have been following the NR’s news on social media and it’s been great to hear about the excellent work you keep developing.
After being in India for four months, I would love to share an update of some of my experience so far.
As for my life here, it’s very interesting to live and work in India. It’s a kind of complex mixture of contrasts. Experiences can be quite extreme and all my senses are very stimulated. As you probably know, you can find stunning temples, people wearing colourful and exuberant dresses (especially in weddings), puja rituals, tasty spicy food, fascinating classical Indian music and dance full of details, etc… but what really fascinates me is how welcoming and easy to approach Indians can be. I have met many people in all sorts of events. In my trip to Thachi, a little town in the Himalayan mountains of Himachal Pradesh, I even played with local musicians who never came across a western musician! On another day, I went past a market in Delhi where they had a very colourful kind of stage with figures of Hindu Gods. I asked someone what was happening there and I ended up playing my flute in a puja ritual with great percussionists, singers and a keyboard player. This felt like a big public party where people danced, clapped along and sang back in a kind of reply to the singers. Obviously, traditional music is so exotic and attractive that I couldn’t resist playing!
Although it is fascinating to be here, I also need to be extremely patient as many things can be quite slow, tedious and sometimes not the most efficient. However, I believe I am developing my sense of patience.
Music therapy is very welcomed here, some people that I encountered don’t even question the benefits of it but their understanding does not exactly match mine. Traditionally, it is believed that receptive music can have a positive effect on the chakras of the body promoting physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. Therefore, a crucial part of the work we do is to show and explain our understanding of music therapy stressing the importance of interactive music-making.
Work is especially interesting because of cultural aspects, it affects everything from the smallest musical interactions to the way we deal with people at an organisational level. Making music in this context keeps me on my toes as I frequently find myself in new musical ‘lands’, my clients take me to discover new styles or ways of using western musical norms and forms. I also feel I am in a new territory when trying to fit music therapy into their thinking, for example in education. From what I’ve observed so far, there seem to be a tendency towards a behavioural approach, and sometimes giving freedom for exploring creativity or expression in music therapy can be seen as contradictory if we don’t communicate about our work properly.
I leave a link to the blog where we post some information of the work we do in India: http://themusictherapytrust.com/blog/
I am planning to come back to the UK once I finish my current projects. It would be great to see you again soon.
I wish the New Year brings peace and happiness to all of you,
Jose Alor