With recording only a day away, I had a number of things to figure out. In Pakistan, during the month of Ramazan, while Muslims are fasting, restaurants tend to be closed in the day. Certainly different areas may vary, but I had about 12 people to feed for the next day at lunch. While singing and performing, these musicians would not be fasting, as you really need water.I asked around. Ordinarily the hard working staff of the hostel mess would gladly help me out and I could cover the cost of the extra meals, but they are on a rough schedule during this month where not only are many fasting, but they stay up much of the night prepping food for the early morning before sunrise, then for folks who are not fasting and then dinner at night. It has been very hot here. I read that over 200 people have died of heat stroke in Karachi, which is a few hours away. It is a bit less hot here, but not by much. So the mess staff could not provide food.Okay, that was one problem to figure out. In addition there were some details that came up regarding the state of the recording equipment. There would be no audio monitoring available. That one scares me a lot. Seriously, this is worse than a video game, with so many obstacles to each goal. It is exhausting and I constantly question whether I can go much further without some positive developments to help.Once it was evening, Ustad Anb Jogi, Abdul Rahman Abroe (who would sing in Urdu) and his father came by the hostel. I had offered that they could stay in the hostel room with me if they liked. They were tired. The Abroes had travelled a far distance to be there and Anb is perpetually busy.They walked in my room and were taken aback. Many people here seem to think I must have an endless supply of money and no matter how much I try to explain how much I am risking and sacrificing to try and make this project happen, it just falls on deaf ears. The room is the hottest in the hostel apparently, and not in a good way. The three of them looked pretty disappointed. Anb said there was no way they could stay here. I reminded him that I had been here for almost 3 months trying to save money to pay for this project and get back home afterwards.He made some calls and contacted Mehboob Ali Shah sahib, who among others, has helped me to understand sections of Shah Latif’s poetry more deeply. He graciously offered to put them up for the night. I mentioned that the roof was also a sleeping option, but they needed to go. My friend Saqib dropped by with some delicious kababs courtesy of his mom and we shared them.All of us rode over to the market in the society neighborhood as I needed to print some script pages for the next day. Then we head over to the phaatak (train tracks). It was on the way to Mehboob Ali Shah’s place and I needed to check if any places there would be be open for lunch. I asked one place and they said no. I really needed to figure out this food thing.So, we went to Mehboob Ali Shah’s home, and sat in his bhaituk (receiving room, sitting spot). There were a ton of things going through my brain, and I was really tired from trying to work out all the logistics. There were mats and pillows laid out for sleeping. Mehboob Ali Shah sahib came out. He is very busy, but as always was a very gracious host. He invited everyone to stay, and also have dinner. I needed to figure out some more things for the next day, so after a while, I excused myself and Saqib took me on his motorcycle to another restaurant by the rail road tracks. They too said they would not be open at lunch and that no one was. So, I did the only thing I could, which was to buy a bunch of food and bread for the musicians now. I figured I could put it in the fridge at the hostel kitchen, then heat it up and serve it. I was a bit worried about getting bread that way, as it would not be so nice reheated, but there was only so much I could do.As I was paying for the order, and about to leave, the same guy at the desk somehow just realized that they were open for pick up at lunch. I really do not understand these communication issues here. I mean, I was speaking in Urdu and Saqib spoke in Sindhi, so we had it all covered. So much stress and headache could be avoided. Anyway, that was good news. Anb wanted me to drop by Mehboob sahib’s place again, so I dragged poor Saqib back there, or rather I rode with him once again.We stopped in and the Abroes and Anb had decided that they would go back and stay at a hotel in Hyderabad. I gave them money for that. It was interesting how these musicians that I am trying to support through this project live far better than I do. It really hit home the irony of my own stupid desire to do this project and due to limitations, the need to rough it so badly here. These musicians work hard too, but they all seemed to have it quite a bit better than me in very relative terms. I think it would be oversimplifying to not acknowledge the many challenges based on education and access that they have, but it’s a bit ironic, that they could not stand my room for 15 minutes and insisted that they needed beds and a cooler, temperature wise, place. It still does not seem to occur to them just what it takes for me to pull together the funds to do this.Anb suggested adding several more instruments and I said no. There were already plenty, and I did not wish to overpower the imagery of the film or my budget, which I already was. Seriously, none of the musicians I spoke to seems to understand that. I am balancing things out by paying them properly, and sacrificing my own comfort and sanity, but I have some serious financial limitations too. Certainly I raised funds on kickstarter and added my own to it, but there’s no safety net here, which makes it hugely difficult, and none of these musicians could care less.Now I don’t mean that they need to express all kinds of personal concern, but to at least listen when I talk about budgetary constraints and challenges I face and if not that, at least do the rehearsal work that I’ve been begging them to do. The rehearsal consists of getting familiar with the script by reading it a couple of times a day. It is 11 pages or less depending on the chapter assigned to them. I think the musicians tomorrow have prepared, but a few others I am very worried about. Also, since the ones tomorrow decided not to work on the Urdu portion, I had to call in Abdur Rahman Abroe at the last minute. All of these things add up. They also requested that I add two more instruments on top of their party of six. Now, I also trust them musically, so that is important. I added the flute player, but nixed the keyboardist as I wanted to keep to more traditional instruments.So all of this was swimming in my head, as I got back to the hostel, thanked Saqib for really helping me out and went to my room to do some more work before sleeping. I kept waking up in the night due to heat. I would splash water on myself, which made the fan feel cool, then try to fall back asleep in the 15 or so minutes before the coolness wore off. I felt like if these two sessions did not work out, I might need to pull the plug on this project as it is taking too much on every level. Before that, of course, I was giving it everything I had to make it work.