Fingers flick across a tabla in a quick run of soft, ringing strokes, and you are hearing a style that carries this city's name. The Farrukhabad gharana is one of the classic schools of North Indian drumming, and its great master Haji Vilayat Ali Khan made the town his home.
Beyond the drums, workshops stamp cotton with carved wooden and brass blocks, trucks of potatoes roll toward the wholesale market, and in winter pilgrims camp on the sands below Panchal Ghat. Summers bake, the monsoon brings heavy rain, and winters turn mild and pleasant. A Local Friend can fit Sankisa, the ghats and a plate of kapoor kand into one day that makes sense.
