Aloha from Maui - Sitar and tabla student of Harihar Rao in the mid '70s. I generally use tabla for classical raga improvs but I also play tabla tekas on other hand-drums.. lol.. drives djembe drumcircle players crazy!

Here are a couple of samples using a conga drum to play thekas Ektal and Chautal behind other Western instruments

Raga Bilawal - Ektal... www.esnips.com/doc/d2d819...sitar-ektal
Raga Hemant - Chautal .... www.esnips.com/doc/c55adc...3651/hemant

Here to share knowledge and experiences I had as Harihar's student.

One thing I'll never forget.... each week Hari would review the lesson, playing progressively double-timed, until it was so fast his hands were but a blur, but I made an amazing realization.... condensing the long variations into such a small capsule made it really easy it remember them. It was almost like translating a long composition into a single phrase.

Second, the most difficult pieces to perform are the vilambit , extremely slow thekas. Keeping strict time very slowly is much more difficult than playing the drut swift thekas. The tendency to rush certain strokes when playing especially slow is the challenge.