Into the Fray, Again.

Life has been insanely busy these past few weeks. I'm juggling full-time work by day and full-time school by night again, and with a smattering of hangouts, and adding an increased dose of riyaz to my dayly routine means my days have been quite action-packed. Apart from all of that:

Finally had a little party to break in the new place. Got S a Carrom board and an engraved Cross Pen (as per an expert's suggestion) for his birthday. People came over for a potluck/ Game Night. My little apartment was filled to the brim with caffeine (and otherwise) high folks playing carrom and poker tournaments. It was crowded and loud. I rezlized I love having people over.

Got together with a friend who is working on an initiative involving one of Tagore's poems. Really looking forward to the coming months to see where we can take this thing.

Another shibir this past weekend, this time in Toronto. It was a Guru Purnima Shibir, which means each of us focused on practising a certain piece all weekend, over and over and over again until our fingers were blistered and our arms were stiff and sore. We then performed said piece for Ustadji on the third day in a kind of mini concert. Everyone was more dedicated and focused this Shibir, which is interesting given recent circumstances. Riyaz kept us up till about 5 - 6 AM every night which was much later than usual. And the food, oh the food this time! We had gosht (which means mutton), then gosht pulao, then mutton biryani, and then nihari. We felt like we were being bad and had a vegetarian meal for one of the lunches, but later made up for it with the best biryani I've ever had, for dinner (which I learnt how to make! The real kind) and keema-karela and kababs later still (at 3 AM). There's something about being around nesha-type people, it makes you crave things and give in to them.

This time, more than other shibirs, for some reason I felt a deeper connection to the people, to the music and to Ustadji. A sense of heightened awareness permeated the whole weekend. N who has cancer also came (she rarely leaves home these days) on performance day. Her chemo ravaged body didn't hold her back from giving her all into the performance. She put everything she had into it; body, mind and soul. Her hands shook during the pauses as she progressed but she kept on and had most of us in tears with her moving performance. K and A played a duet in Jay-Jay Vanti, they're both white and it was so endearing when K, in the middle of the performance, spontaneously said to A "do se" (from two) indicating the starting point for one of the taans and A replied with a quick nod. I played Gaur Sarang or Din Ki Bihag (also known as Dinky Bihag by some). All of us played OK, but we've all got a long way to go before we do what N did this weekend.

We got back late last night and I'm missing the atmosphere so much. Everybody says on the last day of a shibir, with a long face, "OK, back to reality". And that's really what it is.