Delhi

Writing from Dhaka in Bangladesh. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in South Asia for barely over a week - it seems like I’ve been here many weeks. The program last Friday night at the Habitat Centre in Delhi was my first of the trip. “People enjoyed it,” which is code among musicians maybe everywhere for “I wasn’t particularly happy with how it went, but it’s over and time to move on.” And apparently people really did enjoy it. While I was walking around the fabulous Hamayun’s Tomb archeological site, a group of about 5 people stopped me and told me that they had heard me play the night before and how much they liked the music. So…

Hamayun’s Tomb is practically worth a trip to Delhi just to see it. It was built about 75 years before the Taj Mahal and is considered the model for the Taj. It was also very quite and peaceful, until about 2:30 when hundreds of teenage schoolchildren arrived. Also the best weather, warm, relatively sunny, the only real break from cold and fog. Delhi is in the middle of tearing itself apart and rebuilding, especially miles of elevated metro trains. It could really transform the city if they get them finished and if they don’t fall down because of construction errors. Otherwise traffic is pretty hopeless. It’s like LA; everything is an hour or more from where you are, unless it’s after 10 at night or a Sunday. Between distance and cold it seems like all programs are lightly attended. I was told by musicians who live in the city that our attendance of around 25-30 people on Friday was actually very good. Certainly the publicity was good! Among those who attended were two people I hadn’t seen for years, who had no knowledge that I was in India but saw the listing in the newspapers.

On Sunday Tim Witter and I went to see the sarode jugalbandi of Aashish and Alam Khan, with Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla. The program had been set up as part of the Tansen/Swami Haridas Festival by Vinay Bharat Ram, a long-time patron of classical music in Delhi and supporter of Khansahib for many years. I stayed at his family compound back on my first trip to India in 1979 when traveling with Khansahib and Zakir, and was completely blown away. Alap in Bageshri, gat in Bageshri Kanada, second piece in Misra Mand. The program had clearly been set up for Alam to take the lead, playing the opening statements in the alap, jor and gats; a very generous gesture on Aashish’s part, I thought. And Alam carried it off seemingly effortlessly; his playing had a very good flow. Pandit Ravi Shankar came to the program. I wonder if it was his first time hearing Alam play solo. I sat behind him and watched him watch/listen to Alam. I think he was pretty knocked out!