It is well past midnight. Both, ustad and shagird have lost track of time as the ghungroos keep beat and the music gains momentum. The alliteration created by Kathmandu and Kathak is finding a literal playing out in the Nepalese capital with “the dancing Afghan”, Ustad Fasih ur Rehman, taking Mumbai’s Sushant Gaurav, through the paces. 

The disciple follows the maestro’s moves in tandem, seamlessly executing shifts in rhythm in a stream of eloquence and grace under the teacher’s watchful eye. It has been two years of online dance sessions between the two until recently when they first met. “Though I had played the scenario in my head several times over, when I first met Ustad ji, I was tongue-tied. It was like the soul meeting the divine,” says Gaurav, a Mumbai-based Kathak exponent. “I now know why both, Fasih ji and the late Birju Maharaj ji say, ‘Ustad se mohabbat na hui, toh kya seekha?’”