India Stories: Isolation

Hello from quarantined India!

What in the hell happened?! When last I was writing to you, I’d celebrated new year and Christmas and was well into the routine of 2020. Right now I’m hiding in my apartment in solitary confinement, at war with an invisible enemy which is killing tens of thousands of people.

Still, there’s good in every situation, and I always like to see that. During the past couple of weeks, unable to leave my apartment, I’ve had the chance to really get into reading books and writing songs. As an introvert, I thrive in times like these – just give me a pencil and paper. I’ve not even touched Netflix!

So while I’m here, on my balcony, looking out at the coconut tree forest of Santa Cruz and the deserted highway next to it, I will give you the details of what is happening here in Goa! 

Burning an Old Man (January)

2020 started with a bang! Our church had a worship service which brought in the new year. Some of the BLC boys came along and played their instruments and we all had cake, samosas and chai to celebrate the beginning of a… mysterious and interesting year. After the service, I drove the boys back to the senior boys home where I joined them at their party. The boys celebrate new year with loud music, dancing, special food and special ceremonies and Goan rituals. They’d put up coloured lights all over their backyard, and were playing dance music and having a blast. After some time, we ate chicken xacutti (one of Goa’s most famous dishes) and omlette together, and some locals had donated drinks and chocolates.

After dinner, I presented the boys with their music theory exam results. Out of nine boys, one passed, one passed with merit (above 75%) and everyone else passed with distinctions (above 87%)! The third LOWEST mark was 91%. I was pleased as punch, as so were they.

After the presentation of results, we had the “burning the old man”, a Goan tradition similar to Guy Fawkes. The boys had made a “man” out of whatever old things they could find, placed him on a bonfire and were ready to light up. As last year, they wanted me to be the one to burn the old man, so I took great pleasure in starting a huge fire at an orphange… that could be worded better, but you understand. The old man represented all the old habits, weights and wrongdoings of 2019 and it was good to celebrate it and feel refreshed and ready to start a new year. As the fire raged on, the boys did what teenage boys love to do, and they danced around and jumped over the fire, clapping, shouting and chanting for joy. It’s a tradition unlike any other.

A few days later, one of the girls from church was getting married (I wrote about her engagement party last January) and we were all invited. The boys performed some prepared songs at the service and then we were all invited to the wedding. Indian weddings are huge affairs, and this one was no exception – party marquee next to the beach in south Goa with a hundred or more tables of eight, a crazy buffet, a professional band and an MC. It was so beautifully decorated. It was just a loooong long way away – 90 minutes drive in the dark… with a car full of nationally protected children.

Seeing January out was a special worship concert in Panjim, the capital of Goa. Amit Kamble is a very special songwriter to Christians all over India as he wrote the most popular worship song, “Shukriya”. We brought all the kids from the band to the free, open-air concert and they had such a great time, singing and jumping up and down… right in front of the speakers!

Bribes and Banks (February)

As February came in I made some big leaps in my personal life here in India. I was granted a national ID card called a PAN card, and I opened a bank account (I still don’t know why I left it so long). This makes things easier with the police, when they pull me over and do a “spot check” for being a foreigner, and for paying for things online. 

The police had found my phone after it was stolen from a music festival. Apparently a band of petty thieves running a crime ring of stealing devices had come to the festival all the way from Mumbai and Delhi, and were staying in nearby Calangute, where a lot of tourist-related crimes happen, including prostitution, drug-dealing and slave-trading. The ring was busted and most of the phones were recovered. I went to Anjuna police station and talked to a lovely officer who got me to identify my phone and talked me through what I need to do to get it back. He kept getting me to sit and chat with him as he explained the lengthy process involving receipts, judges, lawyers etc. I’ve always been a bit slow and naive, but it was weeks later that I realised he was keeping me chatting in his office to get me to bribe him to give it to me there and then and consider the case closed.

Teaching was going well, with music theory classes well under way, including grades 2 and 3. Thanks to the sponsors for paying for the kids to study and take their exams.

The girls are also having a great time learning music. There are some extremely talented kids in the girls home. Most would like to learn drums, but I’ve started four of them on keyboard and another four on guitar. Their little faces when they discover that they’ve learnt something new is the biggest uplift for me. Some of them are so eager to show me that they’ve been practicing and what they’ve been practicing that I can’t move on with the lessons until I’ve allowed them to show the class what they can do.

Mum also joined me towards the end of April, and on 29th I was joined by Ian who I lived with for some time in Leeds and who has constantly been a support for me here in Goa. Him and his wife, Lucy, even sponsored one of the boys to do his grade 3 theory so it was such a lovely thing to introduce sponsor to student.

Holiday and Holi Day (March)

Mum’s trip to India started in Goa, then in early March we had a week’s excursion to northern India. We were shown around and hosted by my wonderful friends Abhinay and his family, and Deviyani and Shantanu. Our little trip took us to Amritsar (Punjab), Delhi, and Agra (Uttar Pradesh). We saw the Taj Mahal, the Golden Temple, the Qutb Minar and many other sites, and ate so much great food that our tummies were bursting. Mum even tried a fire-paan – a snack consisting of different fragrant items wrapped up in a leaf and set on fire. The paan walah put the flaming thing in her mouth! I was so impressed with her. 

When we returned to Goa, my friend Cameron was waiting for me in a BnB around the corner. He’s been planning to make a short documentary film about my work in Goa for about a year, and finally we got a plan and a narrative together. We set about filming all my daily activities, interviews with Martin and Beena and some select kids, and other daily activities of BLC. It was time consuming. One day we went to a market in the capital, Panjim, and when we got back to the car we found that the police had clamped it! Police are notorious for harassing me as I’m a foreigner and they think I have money, so I had to make plans with Martin for a local to come and claim to the police that the car is theirs (thanks Dan). If the police had known it was mine, they would charge four times as much to get it released.

The real reason for Cameron coming when he did was to capture the children celebrating the festival of Holi (festival of colours). As with every year, the Grand Hyatt put on a massive Holi party and invite all the BLC kids. However, as COVID-19 was beginning to make signs of infecting India (which, considering the lack of resources for dealing with a pandemic, means possible disaster), the Hyatt cancelled their party. On the day of Holi, I was preparing to drive Cameron around the villages to see if anyone was playing Holi so that we could get some footage. At the last minute, Martin informed me that the senior boys had arranged their own Holi celebration, so we quickly went into Santa Cruz market and bought two bags full of different Holi colours and took them to the boys home. We had a big party with colour and music and we got some incredible footage!

After some drama with Oman Air moving mum’s flights around so that she would have to spend 48 hours travelling instead of 20, mum finally arrived home safe and sound in Manchester. A few days later, PM Modi announced that all of India would be entering a nationwide “Janta Curfew” lockdown. Airlines started cancelling flights, all the trains stopped running, all the shops in Goa closed. One minute life went on a usual, the next, everything was silent. Many people, including myself, had seen it coming and had made sure they had enough food for a few months – rice and dal are the main staples every Indian needs, and I have enough to last the worst of it.

So here I am. Half way through the proposed lockdown (an extension is inevitable) and I’m making use of every moment of solitude. I’m currently producing a new song called “Peace” which I’ll be uploading to willadammusic.com very soon. I’m reading books and continuing with learning Hindi.

Hopefully, though, by the next time I write to you in July, I’ll be out of isolation!

Wherever you are and whatever situation you find yourself in, I pray you are at peace.

Lots of love

Will

Thanks to

• Mum, as always, you’re wonderful, and without your support, this wouldn’t be possible.
• All my amazing sponsors who have helped me be here. 
• Martin and Beena, Daniel and Rebekah for always being there.
• Abhinay, Aarushi, Aunty and Uncle, Deviyani and Shantanu for being the most wonderful hosts and friends. You’re all beauts.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus for giving me some laughs while in isolation. Veep is a masterpiece.
• The BLC kids for being the joy of my heart.