I am back in Poona now and the weather is just right. Tee- shirt weather. This morning I moved my mattress out onto the balcony at 5.0 am and snoozed until 7 and then got up and sewed a pipe bag while watching the sun rise over the wooded hill in front of the 8th floor that flat I am living in. Peaceful and warm.

It wasn't like this a week ago when we were searching for Indian Highland Pipe makers in Meerut. It was cold. We flew up to smoggy Delhi and then took the 90 minute train north to Meerut. On the way from the station the taxi driver took us through Jali Kothi- a street bristling with instrument makers and instrument shops. It is a narrow street and it was dusk, but as we drove by we got tantalising glimpses of shops festooned with drums and brass band instruments. 

It was cold. The town was experiencing unexpected temperatures down 5 degrees centigrade, which may not seem cold to us, but they were not prepared for it as many people sleep on the streets or, if lucky, in flimsy shanties. Groups of people wrapped up in blankets stood huddling around impromptu fires lit on the pavements.

The next morning we had a lightening tour around the oldest and biggest instrument factory manufacturing brass band instruments in Meerut, founded in 1885 by Nazir Ali. It is now run by Shirin Said, the granddaughter of the founder of the company. We were impressed by the calm way she, as a woman, managed to run a factory with about 100 male Muslim employees. She told us that they had manufactured bagpipes in the factory, but needed the space, so at some stage the pipemaker moved to a workshop nearby.

Eventually we met the pipemaker Saed Khan who took us to his workshop. He told us that he was the only pipemaker in India. (I suspect that there might be some in Delhi, but he is certainly the last one in Meerut). There we spent a wonderful hour with my daughter in law Ann translating everything between Hindi and English.  So often in my travels I have been frustrated by meeting craftsmen, but not being able to communicate in any real depth. Just relying on sign language.  But Saed and I could talk in great detail with Ann translating.  Magic.

I took photos and will be putting videos on Youtube. I am also in the process of  writing a full account of our visit for Chanter, the journal of the Bagpipe Society. So if you are not a member and want to know much more about the instrument making of Saed Kahn I suggest that you join The Bagpipe Society immediately! Do it now!!
www.bagpipesociety.org.uk/
 

This photo is of Said squatting at one of his lathes.
Notice how he is using his big toe to guide the gouge.