Too Many Flutes (3) - Bansuri

When we finally got to India in February, 2015, the only souvenir I knew I wanted was a bansuri - an Indian flute. Before the trip I did a lot of poking around on the Internet and discovered that one of the top makers of bansuris, Anand Dhotre was from Mumbai, where we would be. From his excellent web site I was able to purchase a flute in the same pitch as a Western flute, and he agreed to deliver it to the hotel where we were staying. He brought two flutes for me to try, but, since I had never played a bansuri at all, I could only choose by the decoration on the flute: the one with the orange trim, which I happen to be holding in the picture with Anand that someone in the hotel lobby took for us.

My intention was not to learn to play Indian music, though I love to listen to it. Indeed, at this moment I'm listening to a Youtube of Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasiya, whom I have heard in concert several times here in Israel. I love the deep sound of the bamboo flute, the way the player makes the sound float, the gentle energy. During our trip, only two weeks in a country where you should spend at least a year, I played the bansuri every day, and when I returned home to my Western flute, I found that it had helped my tone. Every once and a while I take it out and play it. It has a slightly charred smell from the way Anand burned the fingers holes into the instrument.

I didn't really have to buy a high end bansuri. Not far from our hotel, a peddler was selling flutes to tourists for a tenth or so of what Anand's flute cost. I bought a small one and recently gave it to my grandson, a very musical fellow who got a sound out of the instrument within minutes.
Perhaps the best way to use my bansuri would be in a form of musical meditation, which is the way Indian music sounds to me.
That trip to India was mainly focused on textiles, and we hardly heard any music at all. Perhaps we'll be able to take a musical tour some time. Meanwhile, I have my bansuri to keep the memory of India warm.