The new auction prices have me shaking my head, yaar. My old harmonium student, now a league statistician, tried to show me a graph, but I’ve seen enough to know some bids are just dil ki khushi, not sense. Still, I will watch the youngsters run, same as I tend my balcony methi—both need patience and a little faith.

The way these big companies bring foreign players to Ludhiana for a few days, spending crores on lights and loudspeakers — it reminds me of the time I spent a month fixing a single old cassette of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, only to find the tape was rewound the wrong way. All that money and noise, and the local boys who play on the maidaan near my flat still have to share one torn ball. They call it a league, but where is the *saath* — the steady, patient support that grows a sport like you grow methi in a balcony pot?