Agartala Musical Hall -

But a strange thing happened.

"You know they are tearing it down," Arohan said.

Tonight, the hall was silent, but Arohan could still hear the ghosts of music. He shuffled inside, his cane tapping a lonely rhythm on the marble floor. He touched the back of the last wooden row of seats. 1897, a faint brand read. The hall had been built by Maharaja Radha Kishore Manikya not just as a theater, but as a heartbeat for the princely state of Tripura. agartala musical hall

"Help me," he said.

To the passersby, it was just the "old concert hall." But to Arohan Deb, the 74-year-old night watchman, it was a living, breathing time capsule. But a strange thing happened

But Arohan’s most sacred memory was of the piano. It was a 1920s Steinway, shipped from Hamburg via the port of Chittagong, carried by elephants up the hills to Agartala. The last great court musician, Pandit Dilip Chandra Roy, had composed his masterpiece "Agartala Ki Aankhi" on that very piano.

For the next two hours, the old man and the girl moved with a frantic purpose. They pulled the dust sheets off the chairs. They opened every window to let the moonlight in. Arohan found a jar of brass polish and rubbed the nameplate on the piano until it shone: Steinway & Sons. He shuffled inside, his cane tapping a lonely

Arohan turned. A girl stood in the aisle—maybe seventeen, with a silver nose pin and a mobile phone glowing in her hand. Her name was Riya. She was a classical guitarist, though nobody in her family knew.