Yanesh Tyagi

 An Evening of Music, Stillness, and an Uneasy Thought Last night, at Sufi Music Night at Safdarjung Tomb in Delhi, I experienced the simple pleasure of sitting still and listening. The lead artist, sitarist Megha Raut, brought together Sufi music and the sound of the sitar. The blend softened the trance-like intensity I associate with Sufi music into something gentle and contemplative. The notes seemed to invite the mind to slow down. Around me, the audience listened quietly. That shared attentiveness became part of the beauty of the evening. So many people, each carrying their own thoughts and concerns, had settled into the same sound. For a while, simply being there felt enough. The historic setting added to that feeling. There was something deeply moving about hearing the sitar in a place that has stood through generations of human life. The music, the architecture, and the quiet attention of the audience made it an evening I wanted to hold on to. But one observation left me un...

  There are some places we remember not because anything extraordinary happened there, but because, for a few quiet moments, life seemed to slow down enough for us to notice it. Hastings was one of those places for me. It was late in the evening, and the town had already surrendered itself to the night. The sky was almost completely black, the kind of darkness that makes every artificial light seem brighter than it really is. Ahead, the great arch of the bridge stretched across the river, illuminated against the darkness. From a distance it looked less like a structure of steel and more like a doorway, connecting not merely two banks of a river, but two moments in time. I remember walking through the park, surrounded by trees, grass, silent pathways and the occasional pool of light from a lamp. During the day, perhaps, it would have been an ordinary public space. Children might have run across the lawns, cyclists might have passed, people might have sat talking by the river. But at...