An impromptu performance

Had an interesting weekend.

With the little one's 4th birthday fast approaching, we had loads to do for a proper celebration.

Friends have been alerted, but a venue wasn't finalised and the cakes hadn't been ordered. Yes, the use of 'cakes' is intentional. The little one will have two celebrations - one at the playschool and another one for family and their friends.

After ordering one of the cakes on Sunday morning, we headed off to Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi to buy return gifts for the family celebration. These days, return gifts aren't an alien concept to traditional shop-keepers and they stock everything - balloons, party masks, party hats, party crackers, tissues, paper plates, little toys, photo frames, merchandise from Ben10, Hannah Montana and Disney, t-shirts and scarves of prominent English Premier League Clubs etc etc.

So, we stocked up on all the things we needed and set off to one of our friends - who stays locally.

The friend had a surprise for us. While welcoming us in, he spotted a man walking about with his harmonium in the locality. Like most indigenous instruments, the harmonium is gradually disappearing from the musical scene in India - replaced by the mighty synthesiser. And even rarer is the sight of a musician trawling the streets of a well-heeled locality.

Our curious friend invited the musician over and requested an impromptu performance.

The musician, Deep Chand, comes from India's western state of Rajasthan.

He moved to Delhi when he was young and learned singing by listening to cassettes of famous musicians. He may not know all the words - especially some complex Urdu words - correctly, but sang rather well.

As the friend remarked, he didn't have the false enthusiasm and high-decibel delivery of musicians who sing at religious functions. It was a pleasure listening to him.

He said he doesn't get regular work - only once or twice a week - so supplements it by taking his art to the residential localities of south Delhi.

During the performance, he handed a visiting card and put in a pitch for his son - who is learning dholak (drums), but is also good at putting henna on people's hands. The mobile number is on the business card, if you need to get in touch.