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A Pathway to Knowledge
kind of a destination. The bols were crystal clear but he played so
frantically that as soon as I heard them, new ones came flooding out.
This happened over and over again for what seemed like hours. He
played well over fifteen compositions, none of which I could remem-
ber. We traveled to India, to Thailand, to China, and to the Berke-
ley campus, where he was, as I was told later, teaching that evening.
I kept thinking, “Where is Zakirji?” At that moment, he appeared
in front of me, dressed in a white kurta, waggling his head from side
to side. “You must touch my feet,” he said to me. Touch his feet? I
thought this was strange. Usually, he did not ask anyone to touch his
feet; people just did it. So I touched his feet and we continued on the
journey. When I awoke the next morning, I had remembered much
about the dream, but I could not remember any of the compositions
Zakirji had played.
Since then, I have had many dreams of tabla lessons. Always, Za-
kirji is teaching us about life and tabla. These dreams have become
for me another way of knowing, an ultimate kind of embodiment of
Zakirji’s teachings. It is a way of knowing and understanding that is
deeply embedded in its Indian origins. I asked a colleague from India,
an anthropologist, whether, if I were Indian, I would question the fact
that I have these dreams of my teacher. “No”, he replied, “Everyone
knows that the guru gives you the third eye, the pathway to knowl-
edge” (Bokhare 1997 ).
This pathway to knowledge in the world of tabla translates into
something more than “play.” Here, the role of apprentice is not one
to be taken lightly but rather is one that is ongoing, ever changing,
and adapting in new and different contexts over time. The more time
an apprentice spends playing the music, the more in-depth and tex-
tured his or her knowledge becomes. This also holds true for my role
as an anthropologist because I did not come to an understanding of
the importance and frequency of dreaming tabla until I had been prac-
ticing and learning the instrument for at least two years. Like other
students, I started to experience a deeper connection to our teacher
in both my waking and unconscious moments. Dreaming tabla did
not necessarily make me perform tabla bols more clearly or more
precisely, but it did open up new ways of establishing intimacy with
