The Colby Echo

Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: Opinions

My name is Avi David and I am a junior at Colby. I took a leave of absence this fall semester to live in New Delhi, India and intensively study the sitar and Indian classical music with world-renowned sitarist Shubhendra Rao. The last five months of my life have been some of the most painfully challenging, physically agonizing, heart-wrenchingly eye opening and spiritually rewarding of my life. The sitar is an extremely painful instrument to learn and New Delhi is an exceptionally chaotic, overwhelming, shocking, and confusing city. I have never struggled so hard to exist, nor studied with the same burning tenacity in my life. Over the course of my semester, I made a home for myself in this distinctly foreign environment and fell in love with a new music, culture, people, and food. As a music major with a craving to travel and a desire to develop a deep understanding of people and the world, I couldn't have had a more fulfilling and academically meaningful experience.

Colby refused to grant me credit for this semester abroad since my "program" was not affiliated with an American or well-established international university.

I spent my sophomore year searching for a study abroad program in which I could pursue my deepest academic passion of music while fully immersing myself in a radically foreign culture. As I worked with Danna Lee in the Office of Off-Campus Study (OCS), it became clear to me that none of the programs we reviewed would have given me the opportunity to study music as intensively as I would have liked. I began to do some research of my own. With the help of a Colby professor with some incredible connections, I got in touch with seven of the most brilliant sitarists in India. After nine grueling months of correspondence with various musicians, virtuoso sitarist Shubhendra Rao offered to take me on as a student. On my request, he helped me find a local family with whom I could live in New Delhi, and a school where I could study the Hindi language.

When I presented this information to OCS last year, they abruptly rejected my proposal. I tried to explain to them that studying sitar with Shubhendra Rao would be like studying saxophone with John Coltrane, guitar with Eric Clapton or piano with Beethoven. OCS wouldn't hear me out and they certainly wouldn't budge in their decision, despite the profound efforts of several professors of mine who advocated on my behalf. They simply would not see beyond Colby's written policy. Danna Lee recommended that I study abroad in Salamanca and then go to India after college.

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