Meeting Karen Kolder

Date for Entry: (Monday 30th October 2017)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Tuesday 18th January 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today as soon as I got into Daaga Auditorium for my Academic Writing class, the entire place was empty. I was very surprised because the class was supposed to begin in a few more minutes. A girl came into the auditorium and told us after some time that the class was canceled when she checked her MyElearning. I sat there for some time and then soon I met a friend coming in the same way.

    I saw Karen from the Indian Classical group coming down the stairs to meet me. We were not friends yet. She waved out to me so I knew she was waiting for me to see her and sit with her during class. We spoke a little about her situation with a girl from the same class who was walking in and improper questions were asked to Karen and then other conversations took on from there. The last one was about the mid-term exam we had last Monday and she expressed how surprised she was that I got out of the difficult Taan and I was a new student now joining the ensemble. 

    Out time must have been the entire duration of the canceled class. She had offered to buy me lunch at Subway and we had a walk along with UWI Main Campus. That was when I was introduced to John and another boy doing the Music degree at DCFA. John told us that for the Academic Writing course we had to pass both coursework and the final exam to pass the entire course. That really made me nervous. 

    He then told us that there would be a second English course to be done in the second semester. The way how the entire first year was already, I felt like dropping out. I learned that I was not the only one with this feeling. After being with the persons, Kareen took me back to a car park behind Daaga to wait for daddy to come to pick me up. She said that she had her tutorial later that evening and then she would go up to school for her class.

    For Indian classical Mr. Maharaj played us some classical songs but this time it was from Southern India where the music is different and then I learned that there are over one hundred languages there in India. We began to do the third song this time and it was good. I had to work out the Indian Solfeg that Mr. Maharaj sang for me and then play it back on the pan and then show Esha it on the next Tenor pan.

    In another set of work with it, I heard from my recording that in the “Raag Sohini” there will have to be more corrections and now the music just might be over half of a page and then the second piece we started to do would have more changes again in the “Ek Ajnabi,” which is really not good with a new addition and edit every week but the practice for me in scoring is still very good on the other hand.

    After the practice for the class was over, I had to wait a while outside because sir had to give Eshay make-up her makeup assessment from a few weeks ago. I had to wait for her to finish because I wanted to ask sir to write down the name of the new piece we were learning. She also asked me to borrow my score when she had to do it as well. While waiting there were the six of us outside and then the two Brandons spoke to me. The one from my class and then the one from the Certificate.

    When Eshay was over she came out of the classroom and handed me the score I lend her. Then when everyone else walked out into the field the fired and fluffy green grass I went inside and then asked Mr. Maharaj if he could write out the name of the song on the piece of paper that we were doing. He took the sheet of paper I had in my hand and he wrote it out as I slide it into my blue folder, he said, “So Daryl. Yuh see how dem usin’ yuh notes?” I too knew that the music I transcribed, it was to good use.  

    One of the quotations I could have gotten from him which was “Music is a generational thing where you make your friends in a musical purpose and grow with them.” It looked true because from the video all of the musicians looked around the same age and it was still a men group. We also looked at another one with Asha Boshle as she sang with an orchestra behind her.   

 

 Daryl Zion M. Ali