How do I write a blog post about what I experienced for a year and a half?
In a previous post, I talked about how I was recruited to teach a music class in our Whitefield ward and then passed the class off to someone else so I could start teaching in a neighboring ward. For the next 18 months, I would drop my family off at home as soon as church was over (no socializing after church for us!) and then drove to Indiranagar to teach a piano class of 14ish students. Sometimes they had to wait more than an hour for me to arrive, but they were always excited to see me when I got there.
Week 1 parents and students, leaders and missionaries
This class was not like my class in Whitefield in several ways. The make up of the class changed over time, but once keyboards were handed out, that settled who could be in the class and who couldn't. There were only three adults: the bishop's wife (Bhaviya, who dropped out once her morning sickness became more serious and never came back after the baby was born), the YW president (Shalini, who dropped out right at the end when she had a baby herself), and a young single adult (Emma, who got married to someone from the ward). The rest of the class were made up of the ward's youth--almost all of the young women, most of the young men, and two from primary. My class in Whitefield was mostly adults and young adults, with only a few youth (which included H and E). And because of the age and exuberance of the Indiranagar class, we took selfies after each session for me to post to the class WhatsApp group. I may not always remember, but someone else always did; I couldn't go home until our class picture was taken! And, more often than not, I would find selfies of one or two of them on my phone that were taken while people were gathering for the group photo.
There were a few people that tried to join the class late or asked if I could teach privately on a different day. For the conducting course joining late was fine, but once we handed out keyboards, I was firm that newcomers had missed their chance until the next round of classes (which, ideally, would be taught by one of the current students after they graduated) and that I would definitely not be teaching privately. This was a one-time thing for me because, to be clear, it's not that I was the most talented pianist, it's just that I was the best option they had. Or at least the one that said 'yes' when asked.
Both classes were made possible because of a program run by the Church that provided keyboards and all the course materials to the students if they committed to practicing and coming to class. There were a few sibling groups in the Indiranagar class that shared a keyboard between them (one keyboard per family): Catherine and Precella, Caren and Chelsea, Karthik and Lydia, Arshiya and Nizam. The other students--including Yuvan, Rock, and John--were able to have their own without sharing with anyone. But, to be honest, so many students neglected to bring their keyboards to class that there were usually two people to every keyboard each week.
The day they received their keyboards was so exciting! The senior couple wanted everyone to take a pic with their keyboard number so we know whose was whose.
Like I did in my own ward, first I taught the music conducting course because that's what the program suggested and because it gives basic musical knowledge (notes, rhythm, time signature, etc.) that was helpful once they started the actual keyboard course. The course was fine as an outline, but the chorister course especially was a little redundant and since this was my second time teaching, I knew which bits to skip, what to change to makes them easier, and how to liven it up a little. For instance, to remember the treble clef line notes, we used the mnemonic
Every Good Biryani Does Fine,
and the bass clef lines notes were of course Good Biryani Does Fine Always.
It made me hungry every time.
The participation started strong, lagged a bit with the conducting course, picked up once we started keyboard, course and then ebbed and flowed through the remainder of the year. As soon as they got going with conducting, I pushed for them to lead the music in Church. Many of them (re: the YW) were already leading music, but didn't actually know how. Of course, now they knew how it was really done! But trying to get the YM to lead the music in a ward I didn't attend was challenging, and it seems they rarely took the chance.
As I taught I got to know each of them better. Yuvan already had some musical knowledge, and was easily able to memorize how to play a song on the piano after playing it through just a few times; he became one of the best in the class when his note reading got better. Caren and Chelsea were always invested in learning, but Chelsea got so much better when she started really practicing at home. Rock was never a reliably in class, but he had such an innate talent! John was so sincere; I often had to remind him not to say 'sorry' after every mistake. Emma wanted to learn and she kept practicing until she got it.
At some point, I realized that this class allowed the youth to interact with each other in a way that they weren't always able to do. Indians can be pretty strict about how much time and what in situations the youth get to hang out, but our class was an hour a week where their parents weren't (usually) around. At first, the constant gabbing frustrated me, especially when it was interfering with my ability to hear the student I was working with (I got after the class about it once and they did not let me forget it), but then I realized that this class wasn't about me. And this was the YM and YW only real opportunity to flirt with each other! After that realization, I let them chatter as much as they wanted as long as they stayed on task when I needed them to.
Of course, it would backfire sometimes. The senior couple asked the elders serving in the Indiranagar ward to help in class because one of them knew how to play the piano already. Great! I could always use an extra set of ears to listen to each one of the students as they played what they had been assigned the previous week, and help with correction. But it meant that the other elder--the one that didn't know how to play--was sort of just sitting around. So it ended up being even less helpful because all the YW in class were distracted by the cute elder that was sitting with them and all the boys wanted to chat him up and be his buddy. Luckily, they got transferred out of the ward so it didn't last long.
Once they started keyboard and learned simplified hymns from their course book, I pushed for them to have the opportunity to play prelude before the service began. By this point, the bishop had been asking me for months when they would actually start playing for the congregation (they were singing to music recordings up to this point), but learning an instrument takes time! People who don't play an instrument don't realize how much work it can take (Bhaviya had all by dropped out by this point and the bishop rarely attended class for more than a minute, so he didn't have a good point of reference).
But the entire reason behind this course was to get the students playing well enough that people could sing along, so at some point they had to make that transition. So after a few months of students playing prelude and about eight months after we started the keyboard class, I decided we should bite the bullet: a different student volunteered to play the opening, sacrament, and closing songs and I picked a Sunday a couple weeks away. We talked about repeating the song to go on to the next verse and the difference between playing the piano on your own and playing while people sang; I told them to sing along as they played and I tried singing while they individually played their songs for me. I was nervous for them, but I had faith that they could do it.
I messaged the bishop the week before to tell him the plan and what the songs were, but then he wrote me on Saturday night to tell me that those songs wouldn't work: the congregation didn't know two of them. It would be fine, I assured him. I would skip my ward so I could attend theirs to show moral support and I would sing loud. Plus, it was too late to change the songs now; they had already been practicing those specific songs. Ok, he said, but he wanted me to lead the music while they played so the congregation could hear me as I sang. Sure, of course, no problem.
At the bishop's suggestion, the students came early so they could practice their songs as prelude, but Arshiya didn't really take the chance. And then it was time for church to start! Let me say, I didn't realize just how small this ward really was! My class easily made up 1/3 of the congregation that day. Which definitely meant there would not be enough singing to drown out any mistakes.
The first song (High on the Mountain Top) played by Emma went great. A small mistake or two, but she kept going and we were able to sing all the verses. Nizam (While of These Emblems We Partake) was next; he had a bigger blunder and had a hard time finding where the congregation was as we kept singing. Emma came to sit next to him on the bench to show him where we were and we continued the rest of the hymn without too much issue. But the last song? Arshiya, Nizam's sister, made a mistake early on and instead of trying to keep going and catch up with the singing congregation, she stopped to fix her mistake and then kept going at her own pace, pausing again with each mistake. Which meant none of us could really sing. Plus it was the one song people didn't know (As I Search the Holy Scriptures), so it meant we were all just sort of listening to her try to play instead of trying to sing along. Even starting the first verse over again with Emma sitting next to her for help, we never really got to sing it all the way through. We sort of sang one verse and then I called it good. I knew the entire thing wasn't great, but I was proud of my kids for doing their best and, frankly, for being the first in their ward to play for everyone.
But the bishop wasn't thrilled. He said it was too disruptive to the meeting, which I understand, but hey--we have to start somewhere! As a consequence, he wouldn't let students play all of the songs during church again. In fact, he wouldn't let them play at all unless they played it first as prelude for the bishop to hear. He was also prone to changing the song my student was supposed to play or telling them that they just couldn't play at all when they'd planned to. I wasn't in church with them so I couldn't do much about it except tell my students to stand their ground when they knew that they were ready to play, and then have a talk with the bishop about it myself after the fact. He and I had words a few times, but ultimately it wasn't up to me.
But I also changed the way we practiced the songs after that: if I felt someone could play for the congregation, the student first had to play it for the rest of the class while someone conducted and the rest of us sang. Just like it was a church meeting. It helped tremendously for them to see how well they really knew the song. And it meant that I could tell the bishop with confidence that they really were ready because we had sang together it while they played it in class. Some of the kids really stepped it up at this point. Once they figured out that they could play something--and that they may actually have to play it for people--they wanted to get better. Many in the class wanted to show what they had learned.
The last six months or so of class Catherine and Precella asked if my driver could give them a ride home. Of course! I felt silly that I had never offered anyone a ride before. So after that they always got a ride (better than hiring an auto) and then sometimes Karthik and Lydia and maybe their mom would, as well. Nizam had already gotten in the habit of opening the car door for me when I left, but once I started giving people rides, he took that as permission to play in the car until we were ready to go. He loved messing around with all the buttons and vents in the back seat. I'm sure my driver loved it!
Another challenge was that during exam time, my class often fizzled down to the adults and the primary kids. The YM and YW were under so much pressure to get good grades that they wouldn't even go to church some Sundays so they would get the extra study time or tusion (a word that meant something like tutoring). At some point, I had to enact an attendance policy and make people account for why they weren't coming to class. I was fine with them missing occasionally, but if I was giving up my time, the least they could do was let me know if they weren't going to be there and why. It definitely helped them stay a little more accountable, but ultimately I had no control over who would come each week and who wouldn't.
There was one Sunday that I gave Caren a hard time for not wanting to be at piano when she had exams. It's only an hour a week, I said. She got upset and ended up walking out of class and coming back later. The following week she approached me and both we apologized to each other. I didn't realize that she was the one wanting to spend more time studying, not her parents, or I would have been a little more diplomatic when I spoke to her. But she was never quite as serious about piano after that; studies took priority, which I respected.
Everyone taking the class spoke great English, but I wasn't always sensitive to the fact that it was their third, fourth, or fifth language. Sometimes I would teach something, teach it again when it was clear they weren't getting it, and then realize after the fact that they only really got it when someone in the class translated it. Many times I would heard my name when they were speaking to each other; they always assured me it was class-related. :)
I already wrote about the Stake dance that the Indiranagar youth attended, but here some more pictures:
There was one week when I came to class and there were just a few people waiting for me; it one of those weeks where I might have cancelled class if I'd known there were so few students going to show and, to be honest, I was a little miffed about it. In attendance was Precella, Catherine, Emma, Arshiya and sometimes Nizam (as the youngest in class, he was a little flighty). I assumed the lack of people was due to upcoming exams. While I helped each of them individually, the subject of marriage and the temple kept coming up. I was busy listening to them play piano and wasn't really listening to their side conversations--especially since they weren't always in English. Until it finally clicked what they were saying: Emma had gotten married over the weekend! What?! She explained that she had gone on her mission during Covid and so she was never able to to attend the temple. After the Bangkok Temple opened, the stake was slowly having returned missionaries who weren't able to go before accompany new missionaries to the temple so they could all get their endowments out. She and Gokul were already planning on getting married (a love match that their families both approved of!), so they decided to both go to Bangkok with the new missionaries, get their endowments and be sealed, and have their Indian wedding later.
First of all, I had no idea that Emma and Gokul were even a thing! Gokul was another young single adult that would come to class sometimes; he already had some music skills, but he mostly played by ear so he was trying to get better at note reading. So even though he wasn't technically a member of the class, he would come to help sometimes and ask questions about things he didn't understand.
So that weekend they were sealed in the temple, but since they weren't married for all their family and friends to see, they had to stay at their family's homes until the local wedding was over, which was about a month or so later. I gave Emma a huge hug--and Gokul when he came in later--and I told them I couldn't wait to celebrate with them!
Because of the distance, I couldn't attend both the wedding and the reception, so I chose to go to the reception. It was beautiful, as all Indian weddings are, but the quietest wedding reception I've ever been to! Emma teaches and translates ISL for a living (she went on an ISL mission) and many of the guests were hearing impaired. So instead of the blaring music I was used to, it was very, very quiet. I had tried to learn a few words of ISL during my time as their keyboard teacher--Arshiya and Nizam's parents are deaf and they always wanted to say hello after class--but it was not enough to make small talk at this wedding. But everyone was still so kind about it. The food was good, the decorations were amazing, and Emma and Gokul looked so happy!
But after a year and a half of teaching, the class was finally coming to an end. The ward had a sizable group of deaf people and they wanted to use the time after church to start teaching ISL to the rest of the ward so they could all better communicate.
Yesterday after church was their piano recital and graduation and they did so great! Bhaviya had a sick baby at home so she didn't come, but Shalini came with her newborn to church to say goodbye, even though she couldn't attend the recital. They made a video montage of some of the selfies we took from class—which I loved so much!
The bishop also gave them each an opportunity to get up to talk abut the class--and me!--and what it has meant to them. And this was before they had even had a chance to play!
Then they each performed the songs they had practiced and at the end I gave them certificates that showed they had completed the course. I also spoke about my own experience with the class and how I hoped they would continue to learn and be given opportunities to use their new skills.
And then they all wanted pictures with me. I love all of them so much!
Once pictures were done, we went out to the parking lot for refreshments! I had bought a cake and brought a few treats that we all enjoyed. As is tradition, they had me cut the cake and then took turns feeding pieces to me. I wasn't expecting it, even though I should have.
They also gave me a giant goodbye card:
I know this post has just been a hodgepodge of stories and memories, but there was no way for me to know just how impactful this class would become when I said 'yes' to doing it. It has been an highlight of my time in India to get to know these wonderful people and their families!
