SUITCASE IN MY HAND

AMDABADAMDABADAMDABAD!!! The driver’s shout woke me up at 5 a.m. in a an old, dusty bus after a 10 hour journey from Rajasthan. Instinctively I grabbed my backpack and jumped off the bus wondering where I was.
The market was coming alive and streets looked already busy: a new day was about to begin. I walked into the market where the scent of spices and flowers immediately assailed me.
There she was, looking at me in her green saree, it looked like she was waiting for me. She smiled, I smiled too. “Have you come for the Event, haven’t you?”. Although I had no idea what she was talking about I accepted her invitation. This is how I met Bhavani and how I came to know about Saptak Festival, the biggest indian classical music event where the best musicians from all over India meet every year from January 1st to 13th, right in Ahmedabad where I accidentally happened to be. The Festival is organized by Saptak, the musical institute founded in 1980 by Sri Nandan Mehta, an eminent tabla player and Bhavani’s brother in law.
I was warmly welcome by Mehta Family and the Festival, 5-hours of non-stop amazing music for 13 days, was worth the whole trip to India. During the festival thousands of music connoisseurs from all over the country gather to enjoy the performance of nearly 125 top artists such as Zakir Hussein, Shivkumar Sharma, Ravishankar, Chaurasia etc. celebrating indian classical music tradition. Each night people sit cross-legged from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. (a real challenge for western legs and ankles!) and listen to highly inspirational music, while chewing the best pan masala you can ever taste in India! I was literally bewitched by the spiritual melody of ragas as much as by the ancestral rhythm of tabla.
It was an authentic Indian experience, unexpected and apparently accidental but when I was asked: “How does it come you are not just in this big India but right in Amdabad during the Festival?”, I replied by using Bhavani’s words: “It’s just about Karma!”.