Afternoon

Raag Bhimpalasi

A raag of the afternoon, and of longing. It rises through only five notes — leaving out Re and Dha on the way up — and returns through all seven, so the descent always arrives fuller than the climb. The komal Ga and komal Ni give it its ache: not grief, but the particular stillness of the third prahar, when the day has spent its urgency and not yet turned toward evening.