Josh had written me in 2008 asking about Nandan, and Nandan had told me about his visit then saying that he was a fun guy.
Josh is a musician. He plays percussion and seems to make music everywhere he goes. He brought this dancer named Penelope with him and together one would start making some noise and then the other would and the end result was that they started a parade every time they walked down the street with both singing, Josh beating something, Penelope dancing, and whatever kids were around following them.
Josh’s plan is to travel between America and India teaching music. He wants to live in both countries at different parts of the year touring schools and giving music presentations. He integrates music into other kinds of studies, like playing a song and showing the country where it originated or talking about different cultures. I went with him to several schools and he has a stage presence which makes the kids pay attention for sure, and undoubtedly the kids in these classes here are not accustomed to getting foreign visitors who do presentations like this.
Josh has some problems. He has no bookkeeper and he is his own webmaster and publicist, and despite him being able to do these things adequately, he is a musician and ought not be bothered with details like this. I think Josh would benefit from having some organization in both India and America arrange his bookings and promote him perhaps along with other touring teachers, so that when a school is open to receiving a guest like this then the agency could send one out. I also think that people would fund an agency which provided such a service, because the costs of managing performances like this can drop really low if one agency is handling multiple people with various teaching talents. Josh and Penelope do music together; perhaps someone else could go do science, someone else could promote healthcare study, someone else could talk about business. I really feel like kids need to meet role models who can talk about applying their academic studies to something practical or to encourage extracurricular study.
Josh’s website is WorldThroughMusic.org. I would love to be able to work with him in the future. I am going to have to think about how I can help get funding for him and others like him. Josh and I get along really well. I am not sure if Penelope is down for a commitment to India, but she is definitely a fantastic sport about getting sick and being hassled by Indian culture.
Josh performed once at an especially welcoming organization – Duniya. This is a school for poor children in Nagwa, in the illegal neighborhood near Assi. It is funded by some Dutch people and the staff there seem like helpful people and gave us a lot of attention when we went to talk to them about organizing local NGOs to work together.