quick note from Delhi

One of the prerogatives of the vacationer-tourist is to swing over to the vacation end of that teeter-totter, at expense of the tourist end. Actually my tourism has been near nil, but then my vacationing properly can basically be circumscribed to the (current) Delhi caboose of my excursion (if one can so trope a period-of-time-&-experience w/ such a similitude) . . . today (Thursday) being day 3-our-of-4 in Delhi (having arrived late Tuesday)--

anyway, I count among vacation activities (oddly enough) the nearly-3-hours-now spent in a slightly-downstairs (but within doorlight-sight of daylight) 10-rupeees-per-hour (that's $0.20) cybercafe. Haggled by the riksha driver (in Delhi, the attitude about fares is much more casual/aggressive than down south, seems), I'll have expended slightly more for getting here (a 5-min. 3-wheeler trek) than for the (threatenging-to-be-a-full) 3 hours expended. Time & money, in various currencies.

But, or so: I'll not surpss the 3 hour limit, instead turning you (my virtual reader, whomsoever) over to self-quotation from a couple of emails (for what worth). I'm tempted to include one sent to an art-magazine editor, but will let prudence be the bnetter part of um, -- how to turn the phrase? -- I'll let the shaded hand of professionalism for a moment hold sway over the waving hand of blogdom in regard to that. Let me report more later if there's more to report. Hmm, well I see this was also topic of my email chit. Okay, let's go for literary elision, eh? Okay, just from 1 email . . .

yours, d.i.

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Hi P.! -- am at a cybercafe 8:25am -- by Ellicott Hospital market area -- a 5 Rs or 40 Rs. ride from my nearby Sunrise Residency (depending on whether you believe my hotel folks or the haggled-not-so-much driver) -- and the 10 Rs per hour internet connection, which seemed at first not working, does.

I have a different kind of comfortability in Delhi, versus Maharashtra, seems. Friday (tomorrow), in this city, Bahauddin Dagar (nephew of my music-teacher Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar), who (in his mid-30s) is one of very few known & serious exponents of rudra vina, is among a small list of artists in varied fields receiving a certain Sanskriti Award. Ceremony was going to be at home of the President of India, but was shifted to another location. R. knows the guy who organizes this event. Looks like I'll have time to catch the Chai (5:15pm) but not the ceremony itself (6pm) -- as my flight leaves 8:30pm for Mumbai -- whence quick (one trusts) shuttle from Santa Cruz (domestic) airport to the int'l airport will have me (along with tanpura -- being delivered by dhrupadiya guru-bhai Ashish -- it having been built for me in past some days) at the int'l airport, my thus-laden return sojourn to the states being thus slated.

Last night I picked up an art magazine (published in Mumbai, but perhaps a sort of Mumbai/Delhi/beyond object d'art in itself) I like a lot -- called ________ (biannual, now in its Volume 8). I came to this cybercafe (with the booming but likeable music) partly to dash off a note to the editor, as I'm quixotically thinking I'd like to explore writing for them in future, and a note from Delhi (versus DC) has (at least in my inexplicable mind) a certain eclat, or something.