Today the high will remain below 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in weeks. With a pleasant breeze blowing, 97 might as well be 77. Amidst an endless string of unbearable days, we'll take whatever we can get.
The bad:
The pleasant breeze is full of dust. Air quality in Delhi remains "Poor," verging on "Very Poor," with little hope of improvement anytime soon. Today's cooling is but temporary respite on the road to even hotter temps. By late next week, we'll see highs well over 110. This pattern of increasing heat and dust will continue until monsoon arrives, which even by optimistic estimates remains some two months away. Til then, the air will grow hotter, dirtier, and progressively more humid.
Other news:
The domestic labor situation I described last week did not resolve as intended, but it did resolve. Pushpa now comes daily unless we arrange otherwise. In the course of becoming a regular fixture at Z-23A she has opened up considerably. We chat on and off when she's around--far more than I ever did with Reshma--and despite my struggles to maintain fluent conversational comprehension, she is patient with me. Chatting with her is quickly becoming the best language practice I get, and despite first impressions she is talkative and quite funny. The Jains, who are pure vegetarians, instructed Pushpa not to cook meat in the house. Upon learning that I love biryani, Pushpa (who also eats meat, though she told the Jains otherwise) offered to cook a mutton biryani at her home and bring it over for us. She has reiterated at least three times that the Jains can never know--it's our little secret. I've been eating biryani since last night and there's still plenty left for day three. She took my request to make it "bahut masaledar" (very spicy) at face value. Poor Kyle can barely handle it.
Reshma, alas, is no longer coming to clean. She showed up Monday afternoon, aware of the situation, but I explained anyway and offered her an apology. She didn't seem upset in the slightest and gave me a big smile--possibly just because I sounded like a fool. All she wanted in the end was compensation for her last two weeks of cleaning. As is her habit, she asked me to give whatever amount I thought appropriate. I reiterated that by my estimation I'd already given enough to cover her work to date, but in the end I offered another thousand rupees. Somehow that small gesture helped restore karmic balance to my universe, though I'm still sore with our landlords over how the affair transpired.
Tonight is the second of Kalashram's "Vasantotsava," a three-night music and dance festival at Kamani Auditorium. The event is held every spring (covid aside), but this year there is a certain gravity in commemorating Pt. Birju Maharaj, Kalashram's founder, as well as tabla great Subhankar Banerjee and legendary Hindustani vocalist Rajan Mishra. All three maestros died of covid, and disciples of all three will perform throughout the festival. The emphasis is on kathak dance, Kalashram being a dance institute first and foremost, and it comes as no surprise that Birju Maharaj-ji's descendants and disciples are the primary focus. Although the past month has been quite active on the research and lesson front, Vasantotsava is actually the first professional kathak program I've seen since arriving in February. Not a moment too soon. The lineup is loaded with heavy hitters, and with the help of my iPhone 13 I'm taking lots of quality video that should prove useful down the line. Full recap with clips to come.
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