Musical Journey to the Past

My family is from Agra.... I have lots of cousins there and in Feb this year one of them got married in Allahabad..... The bride was from there and my husband and I had gone for this marriage....

This was the first time I was taking my husband to my native place and as such we had lots of things to see together.

We decided to see all the places in Agra first and went to Agra Fort, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur, Sikandra and the temple at Dayalbagh.

It was at Fatehpur that we had a great experience. We were inside the dargah and were doing the usual stuff like tying the threads and putting the chaddar on the tomb and so on.... my husband is highly inclinced towards spiritualism and meditation and he sat down there and started meditating... he later said the place was very charged....

As I came out there was a musical troop who started singing qawalees. I sat on the steps of the durgah and was almost transported to another world... it felt like time has stopped and we are in a time warp.... I spoke to the lead singer later and he said they go around all the durgahs once a year and sing.....

After the group left an ancient looking man sat down with a harmonium with another guy at the tabla and a young boy clapping and he started singing... it was out of the world... that man must have been at least 90 years...absolutely no tooth in his mouth...but his voice was so strong... and he sang songs which were so intensely philosophical.... from guru-shishya relationship to rama and krishna and so many things...he also explained us the meanings... Bala and I were so carried away we sat on the ground in front of the durgah with these 3 and heard him out for more than one hour... there were just 5 of us sitting on the ground and it was afternoon and there were very few people around...

I realised later that it must have looked so weird...three musicians and 2 tourists sitting like that on the ground, one singing, 2 playing instruments and 2 enjoying like there is no tomorrow.... we did not take any pictures as it would have been a sacrilege to intrude on this scene with something as modern as a camera....... but I will never forget the experience.....