The last time I was in Zagreb, I set out to find more compact disks with Indian music. And I got lucky pretty fast. In a store not far from my beloved’s apartment, I found two that I have listened to ever since. The first is a sarangi recital by Ustad Sabri Khan.[1] Carved from a single piece of wood, sarangi is played like a cello. It has three main strings and more than thirty sympathetic drone strings, which give an enchanting echo to the instrument. He is accompanied by his son, Sarwar Sabri, an accomplished tabla player. The father and son descend from a family of musicians that goes back to the court of the Seventeenth Century Mogul emperor Akbar. The second compact disk is by Sarwar Sabri himself.[2] A virtuoso in his own right, he shows what tabla can do. But the first disk has been playing in my house in Motovun most of the time. And I let it rip. The house is the right place for Indian music, too. Standing all by itself, it lets me enjoy it at its loudest. Long after the music stops, it still resonates in my mind’s ear, sometimes for hours. Forever at Akbar’s court, I keep wondering at my good luck.

Footnotes

1. East Grinstead, West Sussex, United Kingdom: ARC Music, EUCD 1566.

2. East Grinstead, West Sussex, United Kingdom: ARC Music, EUCD 1138.