A Christmas wishlist

One thing I forgot to mention in the entry about Shilparamam, the handicrafts village, is my favorite part of the trip there. While walking around the place, I noticed the songs/music they were playing over the PA system. They had some chanting going on for a while which was very nice. A while later I noticed we were listening to a sitar, and it was very good. I was only paying attention periodically but soon that's all I could hear. Now I'd rate my knowledge of Indian classical music at probably 20%. So I was quite thrilled when I felt like I knew what raga I was hearing - I guessed it was Raag Desh but I had to know for sure. So I asked the security people there and they guided me to the tent that was playing all the music. When I went there and asked for the CDs they'd been playing all day long they showed me among others, Anoushka Shankar's "Live at Carnegie Hall". And I was right, it was Raag Desh she had been playing!

So of course now I have become obsessed with adding this CD to my collection, if nothing else, to mark my triumph in identifying the raga. Unfortunately after searching in two cities I still haven't been able to get my hands on it. Apparently the CD has been out for a while, so none of the stores have it.

On the other hand, I was able to get two other items on my shopping list. A jump rope (called skipping rope in India), that I decided to get after a conversation with a friend who got one recently as well. The other item was a 8GB micro SD card for my new MP3 player. This effectively doubles the capacity of my player to 16 GB. I saw one in Hyderabad but the guy was selling it for Rs. 2700, which I felt was a bit high, especially since what I really wanted was a 16 GB card. But yesterday I found one in Pune for Rs. 1550. I am sure if I wait for a few weeks, it'll drop to below Rs. 1000 but since I am in a hurry to get all my MP3 collection on my new player, I didn't want to wait.

(You should see my computer now, it has six USB slots and there are times when I have five of them running - mouse, external HD, to recharge MP3 player, to transfer files from phone and one for my internet card! My landlord was surprised at how little furniture I have in the apt but how much tech stuff I have.)