“Where AM I? What IS this?”

The surreal life continues, and in spades. I spent my third night here at some sort of giant dance. At first it seemed like we’d crashed a wedding, but that wasn’t it. All I know is everyone was dancing with sticks in giant circles, there were 3-4,000 people there, and it was behind the Jumbo Discount Fair.

The night started out with a Shivkumar Sharma concert. He played the Santoor, which is sort of a harp, and was joined by Hariprasad Chaurasia on the flute. This was part of what I can only describe as like a county fair, at the Palace Grounds, in a giant rudimentary building. We didn’t explore much of it except the concert hall, but it really had the feel of a county fair. People selling food, stands advertising Chevrolet, people dressed up as Shiva. Standard fare. We got the cheap seats at the concert, which just meant the furthest away, but as soon as Shivkumar started playing, everybody rushed the expensive seats. I should’ve learned from the Lufthansa experience, but I was still lost in the rush. No big deal, though. Still a cool concert.

But after the concert, we got wind that there was dancing nearby. We left the Palace Grounds and started walking around the neighborhood. We eventually found what we were pretty sure was the dance, but we couldn’t find the entrance, just the Jumbo Discount Fair, which seemed extremely popular for a Saturday night. This is where everything gets really difficult to describe, but we walked probably 200-300 yards behind these signs for the “Jumbo Discount Fair,” and finally found what everybody was going to. We paid Rs.300 to get in, and then it just got crazy. Yeah, 3-4,000 people dancing with sticks in circles. This is the point where I asked my friends “Where AM I? What IS this?” “Join the club” was the reply. None of us really knew what this was, although Sanju vaguely knew the dance, so we were able to join in. Which required taking off our shoes. Since I kept my socks on, I know have the clay/mud stains to prove something serious went down. I’m really at a loss as to how to describe this. We only got the one photo off before somebody ran up to tell us no photography was allowed. So that’s the only proof of this. I’ll consult more Indian friends to figure out where the hell I was on Saturday night. Or what the hell it was.