and the winner is...

shops in pune have been closed for a week due to a bandh, or strike, by merchants against a new tax. this made it difficult to purchase prizes for the friday contests in the survivor girl ukulele band project. but thursday afternoon i found a little shop that sells bangles, bindis -- those little decorative dots that indian women put between their eyebrows, and mehndi -- known back home as henna. a faded, dusty, and exotic looking old bedcover shielded the little stall from the afternoon sun, and inside the closet-sized shop the walls were lined with colorful bangles. hanging from the pole in the middle were dusty strips of cellophane sleeves that held packets of bindi that caught my eye.

"kitna hai?" i asked, pointing to the bindi.

"five rupees," said the shopkeeper, who then got up from the floor. "ten rupees, also," she said, as she opened a plastic box that held the more upscale bindis. these had rhinestones and gold embellishments. ten rupees is about twenty cents in us dollars, so i splurged on a number of the dazzling packets of ten rupee bindis. meanwhile the shopkeeper opened a box filled with miniature bottles of fingernail polish. "ten rupees," she said. "yes, please!" i thought to myself as i selected a number of the tiny bottles. "and mehndi?" "quick acting or normal?" she said. "normal. i'll take five, krupya!" (please)

the next day i displayed the bindi and mehndi on the floor for my beginner ukulele class's tuning contest.

the girls' enthusiasm rose a few notches. "whoever tunes their ukulele the best will get to choose their prize between the bindis and the mehndi," i said.  "and next week's contest will include fingernail polish!" as this was being translated, the girls grabbed their ukuleles and their pitch-pipes and scampered off to find a quiet space in which to concentrate. i've never seen them so interested in tuning.

unfortunately, for all that solitude, concentration, and effort the beginner class tuning contest was a bit of a fail, in that no one came even close to getting their ukulele in tune. on the otherhand, they were all very attentive during the post-contest tuning workshop where we went around to every ukulele and tuned it as a team. and later in the day i noticed one of the girls practicing her tuning. next week there will be a winner in that class!

meanwhile, in my more advanced beginner class, two of the girls did extremely well with their c scales, so two prizes were awarded in that class.

and later in my kitchen-girl class, the girl who recently burned her face very badly in a pressure cooker accident was able to tune two of the four strings on her ukulele and earned herself a prize. she was wearing blue, but she was tickled pink.

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and here's me with three of my first batch advanced beginners. these girls rock!!

everybody loves a little uke

there have been a number of raids and rescues recently in the local brothels, and now the population of the home is 102 girls. and there is no keeping the ukulele lessons on the terrace a secret.

here's where i teach. it's called the terrace, and it's the covered roof of the home. every day the girls' clothes are hung to dry on the north wall of bars that surround the terrace. it makes for a pretty place with decent acoustics in which to teach.

every day a few girls sneak up to the terrace and sit with the class and try strumming one of the ukuleles. even the police officers who are on duty like to get into the action.

the fellow below was also very interested in the uke that i often carry around in my backpack. we met on a number of occasions at this little chai shop down the street from the guest house where i stayed when i first arrived in pune. the first day we met he asked, "you are from nigeria?" i didn't quite know how to answer that.

the next time we met he asked to try out my ukulele.

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after i took this video on my iphone 3gs he said, "tell me again, how much does that phone cost?" i told him that phones like this are a couple of hundred dollars and then about $100 a month on a two year contract. the small crowd that had gathered calculated the cost of an iphone in rupees, and their eyes widened. he liked my uke, but really really really liked my iphone. i get that lot.

and here is a video of roma*, who is from bangladesh and is super quiet. she may not have the best technique, but she is always there and loves to play.

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"this is a chance."

we are just four days into survivor girl ukulele band lessons, and it is amazing to see what the girls are accomplishing. last friday when i visited the protective home for girls who have been rescued from brothels, they sang me a song -- tu pyaar ka saagar, your love is like the sea. so i got a guitar hero to figure out the chords for me and was able to start teaching them to play the song with just a few chords, c, g, and a minor. on day one, i started with three girls each in two separate classes. in each class one of the three girls spoke english. someone advised me to limit the classes to a half hour each, because the girls would be unable to be attentive for more than that.

monday's first class went for an hour and forty-five minutes, and they were tuned in every minute.

a couple of the girls came with long fingernails on their left hands, making it difficult for them to fret the chords. they love their long fingernails. but they all agreed to cut their nails. through the translator, one of the girls said, "nails can grow, but this is a chance."

on day two i combined the two classes, and now have six girls in the class.

here's a video from day two, where the girls are practicing moving from the c chord to the g chord.

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on day four, one of the girls showed up late, and didn't want to tune her ukulele because she felt she couldn't do it. she was also struggling with a stiff strum hand.

i took her aside and helped her "dekho aur suno" -- hindi for "look and listen" -- as we looked at the electronic tuner and at the same time listened to a pitch pipe and the sound of each string as we found the correct tuning.

then i tried to get her to relax her strumming hand, but she couldn't do it. so i had her take ahold of my strumming hand. when we started to play, she wanted to take over and control my hand, but after a minute she was able to relax and let her hand move along with mine. still, it didn't immediately translate into an easy strum on her own.

for the next hour and a half as the group played and practiced changing chords, she struggled with a stiff strum. then just before the end of the class, she started strumming with a nice easy stroke. she was so happy and we all clapped for her. she said, "you take my hand. now i can do it. i miss you."

and here's a video day four of the girl i mentioned earlier who said, "this is a chance."

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can you believe it? this is just her fourth day of playing ukulele!