The Maharaja Lounge

 From the Maharaja Lounge
one had an excellent view of the valley,
and it was there that Dom Baba and Om Baba
decided to wait for the tailor
to return to his room next door

♫ ♫ ♫

He might come back in a while
or perhaps tomorrow,
said the waiter

We’re not in a hurry

May we have some mint tea, please?

 The waiter left the lounge
to prepare the tea,
and Dom Baba and Om Baba
took out their pencils and paper
and began to color and draw

 ♫ ♫ ♫

 I’ll go check and see
if he’s back

Dom Baba went back to the tailor’s room,
had a look around
and then returned
to the Maharaja Lounge

He’s not back yet,
but he does fine work
There’s a very nice wool coat
hanging on a wall

Let’s wait a bit longer

And so the babas continued to color and draw
for a while

♫ ♫ ♫

This is all local wool,
said the tailor
from his place on the floor
in front of his sewing machine
Vashisht’s finest

It’s beautiful

And warm

We’d like to have two shawls made,
one brown
and the other black

Black sheep
are rare around here

Yet some can be found

Yes
I’ll draw you a map
that shows where they live
and how to get there
If you can find them and sheer them,
I’ll make you a black shawl

Excellent

And then Dom Baba
prepared a chillum
and the three men smoked
for a while

♫ ♫ ♫

That vest over there looks pretty nice

Black corduroy
It’s beautiful

What stitching
It’s a masterpiece

Try it on

And so Om Baba handed the vest to Dom Baba

It fits you perfectly

Bhai saab, how much for this vest?

 Well,
it might cost about 800 rupees,
perhaps only 500,
or maybe you can just give me what you want

Dom Baba then began
to prepare another chillum
while the tailor stitched button holes
on a purple kurta
by hand

♫ ♫ ♫

The tailor took another hit
and then passed the chillum to the right

At the market in Manali
you can find dark grey wool,
but if you’re not in hurry,
someone might bring some by
sometime next week

We’re never in a hurry

We can wait

We can do even less than wait

We can just be

Dark grey wool may come

Or it might not

We’ll make no plans for it

Nor will we entertain
any hope
of seeing dark grey wool here

But if it were to appear,
we would welcome it

Yes, it would be most welcome

And then the men again fell silent
and observed
as the tailor continued to sew
by hand

♫ ♫ ♫