Feb 17th: Today we are expecting our bags…

(Never that easy, right?) 

Getting up at dawn, we sang rag Bhairav together (Emily's first time) to welcome our first full day in India.

[For those interested rag Bhairav uses a 7-note scale where the half-steps are between 1-2, 5-6, and 7-8 (just take a major scale and flat the 2^nd and the 6^th). This and similar scales are used quite often (and maybe even more commonly) in Arabic music, as well. With the flat 6^th, of course, you create a quality similar to the harmonic minor in western systems but without the flat 3^rd. Try the scale on your favourite instrument and you’ll hear what I mean. It is also interesting to note that with the half-steps between 1-2 and 7-8, you have two half-steps in a row. This is not very common in western music (except of course in jazz).]

At breakfast we soon learned that, unfortunately, customs would not release our bags without us there in person. After four hours of transit, security, and mid-level bureaucracy (eerily reminiscent of some post-colonial version of the “British Ministry of Redundancies”) at the airport, we managed to return to our hotel with our bags and a much desired (and, frankly, quite necessary) change of clothing.

We shopped a little, as much as time permitted, after losing much of the day to traffic, airport, etc.  

I had been able to contact my Sitar teacher (or “guruji”) and his son, Nasir, before we arrived in Delhi, and we made plans to meet at a Sufi Dargah nearby (the tomb of the great Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan). This dargah is a temple made of white marble with a beautiful domed marble pavilion housing Inayat Khan’s tomb. Next to the tomb grows a large tree that the dome and pavilion are built around.

My guruji is 76 and not as mobile as he was when he first took me on as a disciple eleven years ago (see the pictures from 2000 below). Two of his sons, Nasir and Zahid, meet us at the dargah around 7:00 pm and we had dinner nearby. They invite us to come to the family home the following day for food and music.

Nasir (right) and his other brother and I (2011)

My guruji (Shamsudine Faridi Desai) and me in 2000 (the marble dargah is in the left picture background)