Music makes the world go round PART 1

I feel a bit hung over. Not from drink but from activity, a day of work and a night of Indian music that started at 5:30 and ended at 1 a.m. First the morning:
Yesterday we did alot of work on our new podcasting product. Pulkit and I were to do a presentation broadcast in front of the whole group. We were both a bit daunted by the task of being the radio announcer. While we were working out bugs of the set-up we were joined by coworkers and soon everyone wanted a turn at the microphone in our test broadcasts. They got very funny. I love these guys! They are young, enthusiastic and funny funny funny. Soon they were singing Hindi and popular music songs. After lunch we did our presentation and after our task Tom handed out the haul of chocalate he brought from the states. It's very difficult to get chocalate here apparently and what is here is a bit suspect because it doesn't keep well in the heat.
What heat? It's been raining a bunch since I got here. Yesterday in particular. Thunder and lightening and big rain. After our presentation I began to have a big fashion crisis. I had been wearing the same skirt Tom's wife had lent me for the last 3 days and I felt rather bedraggled. It is not exactly indian either. I mean full of color and life like most Indian fabrics instead rather dark and dowdy. We were all still working but I was able to get permission to have Neetu come with me to get some more clothes. I was really having a crisis because I knew we were going to a big event later that night. The Bikaner Music project.
So I dragged Neetu thru the muddy dirty streets. She was not familar with the shops in Bikaner because she lives in Jaipur so we did alot of tromping up and down trying to find a place with long skirts. Neetu again looking beautiful in her sheer yellow Punjabi suit and heels. We had a half and hour to accomplish our mission. I really felt embarassed about the whole bit. Neetu insisted it was fine to wear pants but in the company of all these beautiful indian women I felt very insecure about the prospect. We finally found a place and Neetu bargained for me. I bought 3 skirts of which I fit in one. The one I had designated for Alia. Pink tye dye with sparkly thread thru out.
I'm so glad I bought that skirt. Not only was everyone dressed rather nicely at the performance, I was schocked during the middle of the performance to learn that I and Tom were both supposed to honor an elder musician with a shawl presentation. I had to walk on stage and bestow a white shawl over an elder sitar players shoulders. Tom's giftee was an 85 year old Tabla player. His son who accompained most of the muscians that night is the 8th generation tabla player in his family. They both were excellent players. I loved that old guy. He sat in the first row and was very expressive when the various musicians succeeded up a particular musical scale and reached it's height. He would punctuate the air with his arm or burst out with a few words of appreciation. It's kind of like how we do at dead shows when we hear Terrapin winding it's way up the ladder. Ahh...once again the dead hippy reference. I can't help but see feel hear what we've created in our communities at home, here with music, marketplaces, fashion, community etc... in some ways. The indian people could learn alot about recyling however and yes there is the caste system which I have not quite figured out. Yes, trash and sanitition are ever present. Cows, camels, dogs and oxens loose in the streets. My coworkers say Jaipur is a much cleaner place than Bikaner. So no not perfect here. Definitely not.
I want to relate more about the music night that went on and on and finally ended with a midnight dinner but I am running late this morning. Got to pack it up and walk to work. More later today or tomorrow.