When it rains it pours

Humidity set in earlier this week but broke yesterday with a surprise afternoon storm. Air quality improved drastically and for a few glorious hours temps dove into the 70s, hinting at the monsoon season to come. Here you can see a few young ladies chatting and dancing in the rain behind Kathak Kendra. Yesterday I went there to meet Probir Kumar Mittra, a retired dance accompanist and tabla teacher, following an introduction from Margaret Walker. I met Margaret, a prominent kathak scholar, at a conference in Bloomington back in 2019 and reached out to her after beginning my Fulbright. She graciously put me in touch with her key Delhi contact. Probirji is a delightful man and we sat together and sipped chai for well over an hour in the canteen. In addition to offering to teach me tabla accompaniment, he introduced me to Shashi Kant Pathak, yet another pakhawaj player and teacher, who I may start learning from soon. That would make five teachers in Delhi--six total including Loren back in the states. Quickly approaching the saturation point. There simply aren't enough days in the week.

After another great session with Ashish Gangani last night, I boarded the metro at Rajendra Place to begin the journey back to Hauz Khas. I exited a Blue Line train at Rajiv Chowk, fighting through the usual bumping and congestion, to make my way to a southbound Yellow Line train. Upon boarding, I reached in my pocket to find my phone had disappeared, snatched by a skilled pickpocket in the commotion. Heeding the prescient advice of the lovely Allie Berger, I had brought a backup phone with me to India. I also had the foresight to purchase full protection from Apple on my new iPhone 13. With any luck they'll ship a replacement to Syracuse in time for Allie to bring it with her at the end of the month. For 25 rupees, Airtel in Green Park issued a new SIM this morning with the same Indian phone number. Despite the inconvenience, it appears any potential crisis has been averted. According to the "Find My iPhone" app, my stolen device was moving around Paharganj in North Delhi as of 10:37 pm last night. Since the location is no longer active, I don't have faith in the ability of the Delhi police to recover it. It's a great phone. Someone will be thrilled to have it, assuming they can unlock it. 

So it goes.