On June 12, 2012 the almost finished rabab for Harbhajan Kaur of Millis, MA, was driven to my place at Nizamuddin East by Jatinder Singh Bhamra and Raju – the cook. Parminder S Bhamra had finished its polishing about a week before. I have now prepared the rabab and its knobs – using the reamer and a shaper, worked on its bridge while the work on its taar-daan begins tonight. The works have been hampered because not all tools were brought to Delhi with the rabab. The drill came but not its guide nor all of my measuring tools. Nevertheless, it is a joy as always to see a polished rabab, which is looking gorgeous as its poses with Luigi’s smaller rabab. Some photos:

The last few days, in anticipation of the departure to Italy, were very hectic – desperately trying to get the box for the rabab made so I could carry it with me to the US via Italy. Sunaina was very kind with the Phulkari purchase while in the end our neighbourhood tailor, Ramu Kumar, stitched the gilaph (cover) for the rabab. Meanwhile, Manpreet Singh, a budding young professional photographer began his education in gurbani kirtan and also began documenting some of Anad’s activities among them was the finishing of the rabab for Harbhajan. The box making attempt was very time consuming and ended up as a bogey. I managed to bring the rabab to Napoli as a carry on. There were some eyebrows raised during checkin at Delhi as I carried the instrument – the Indian guitar of old in my arms but somehow it worked out fine..! In the flight to Napoli from Munich, the crew was very gentle and one very beautiful lady-host gave three pillows for the rabab. Now we have a journey to make – to Houston and then Albuquerque. Hopefully, it will be uneventful too. Some images by Manpreet Singh are now pasted in the gallery.