Irishman (and drummer) Ruari Hackett spent a year in asia, half of it in india.
A day before he is to leave India, Ruari Hackett has mixed feelings. This software engineer from Galway, Ireland, has spent the last year travelling Asia, exploring India for half of that time. “Yes, I’m looking forward to being back home, but India has become like a habit. I have been here for so long,” says Hackett.
By now remarkably well-versed in colloquial Hindi phrases, there isn’t an Indian food preparation of any significance he hasn’t tasted. “I’ll be back next year,” he promises, explaining that he is keen to spend a month learning to play the tabla in Varanasi. It’s only natural that he is drawn to the instrument — he plays the djembe (an African hand drum) at home in Galway.
“The djembe is a simpler instrument, the tabla sharper, and more complicated in rhythm,” he observes. The djembe, a wooden instrument with a goatskin stretched across the head, resembles a large goblet. The name comes from “Anke dje, anke be,” meaning “Everyone, gather together.” Hackett’s djembe was a birthday gift from his mother a few years ago, and it is indeed one of the few things he misses while travelling.
In Galway, Ireland’s third-largest city, on the west coast, there is a very vibrant music culture, Hackett informs me. “Every Thursday, I would play with 60 other percussionists — playing bells and shakers accompanied by chanting in African and Cuban beats.” He is wistful. “I would love to go to Mali for their festival of nomad music.” Hackett recalls having been introduced to the djembe by his father’s friend, a musician — a drummer — from the United States, settled in Galway. Soon after, Hackett started taking djembe lessons regularly, but he didn’t consider music as a profession. “I don’t think I’m good enough for that,” he confesses. “I have a great affinity for the tribal musical tradition, but I’m still learning. I don’t think I’m ready to even perform publicly.”
As an employee with Cisco Systems until he left for Asia in March 2008, Hackett didn’t find time to practice enough to play in a musical band or on a public platform. Before joining Cisco in Galway, he worked in Dublin for a few years as part of other software networks. Eventually, Hackett lost interest in the city. “Dublin is too much of a business centre for me. Galway is more laid back and cultural so I preferred to move back, especially since my family lives there as well,” says Hackett.
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Of this big, long trip around the world, Hackett has lots to say. “I had been planning it for years. I worked and saved meticulously, because on my agenda were Japan, China, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India and also Australia.”
He travelled halfway with a friend from his hometown, though they went separate ways after a stop in Australia. “I wanted to work there for a while but that was just when the economic slowdown was kicking in and I could not find a job.” He was on his own through Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which was slightly uneasy travelling for him. “In Cambodia there were times when it was really difficult to be alone. Plus, there was a huge language problem,” he recalls. India, in comparison, has been a smoother ride. He was here in 2004, when he spent a few weeks at the Bihar School of Yoga in the town of Rikhia with his mother, who is a yoga instructor in Galway.
His second trip, in effect, has been more productive, and he spent far less time getting used to the local ways. “The masses of people and the crowd was a little hard to get used to the first time I came here.”
He has visited Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Punjab, and spent a few days in Delhi and Mumbai as well. Hackett is especially enthusiastic about a Ustad Zakir Hussain-Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia performance he attended in Mumbai. And now the desire to return and learn the tabla in Varanasi is stronger than ever.
One thing Hackett regrets is missing the Rural Olympics at Qila Raipur in Punjab recently, particularly after he enjoyed a Sumo wrestling match in Japan last year. “I fell sick right before the Rural Olympics was to start, and can you believe it, it was the first time I fell sick since I left home last March?”
Hackett’s other travelling tales are less grim. “I was in Kanyakumari a few months ago, and for the record, I’m not a morning person. But someone — I never found out who — made it a point to bang on my hotel room door at 5 am, shouting ‘sunrise!’ every single day” — he chuckles — “but of course, I did not rise from my bed.” There is always a sunset to watch out for, after all.
