Following our long day in the Sunderbans Thursday got off to a slow start. Breakfast was quite late, as was lunch. We were working on the projects with the children from the school - my group were brilliant, Chilik had written a poem and the children had all learnt it whilst we had been out the day before. We were putting finishing touches onto the drama and song - with me practicing my rapping to Brian’s beatbox - never in a million years did I ever think I would rap in front of anyone.

There was some disruption to afternoon class time as the tailor arrived with the blouses for the Saris. Some of them fitted and one or two of them needed some alteration - there was such enthusiasm for those whose blouses fitted that it was all I could do to persuade them not to parade them downstairs until everyone else could wear theirs too. Chilik - one of the pupils at the school made a great translator to help between our students and the tailor.

Our last singing lesson of the trip was in the evening, I think one of the reasons that lunch had been late was because the singing teacher was sponsoring a meal for the children in honour of an answered prayer for a family member, she seemed to be supervising the cooking and then stayed around for the rest of the afternoon chatting with the teachers and visitors. Mr Makhal, the English teacher who had known Anup since his time at the Oxford Mission, had brought some photos into show me. I sat with him whilst he showed me photos of the mud hut that was the first incarnation of the Mathieson Music School on it’s current site, there were also photos of Father Mathieson and Anup.

George spent much of the evening doing more work on the website, Dan and I unpacked the cases that we had brought over so that we could bring them back to England repacked with 4 sets of Tabla, and all the sari fabric we had purchased. I was working on a painting from our Sunderbans trip and the students were either chatting with the school pupils or putting finishing touches to their projects ready for presentations on friday. About 9pm I wandered downstairs with my recorder, to see what was happening, to discover that Anup had persuaded Depak, Sairul and John to get their instruments out. Anup had a cello, Lexi was sitting at the keyboard, Jack and Joe had a bass and a guitar, Dan had a guitar and other students were standing around watching - oh and there was an empty place next to Anup. I was gestured to sit in it and discovered that they were playing an Indian Raga - a piece of music which was being improvised around the central themes. When you play the recorder there is nowhere to hide - if you play to quietly it tends to be quite out of tune so when it came to my turn to improvise I had to go for it!!!!! There is something profoundly scary about sitting next to a world class cellist being commanded to play (in the way that Jacqueline Du Pre would have done with him once upon a time). So I closed my eyes and just played - it was an experience I will never ever forget - the crickets chirruping providing the percussion accompaniment to the most exciting music being created in the little piece of heaven known as the Mathieson Music School - I can only really equate it to a spiritual experience where I think God was there and was honoured by our playing.

When the Raga came to an end Anup launched into the Bach cello suite in G and encouraged Depak and Sairul to join in. They both remembered the music and it was so beautiful to hear them all playing together. This was truly a night to remember.