Music in paperback

RAGA 'N JOSH: STORIES FROM A MUSICAL LIFE

by Sheila Dhar

This book is a classic. The hardback edition sold out three printings and has been replaced by this Black Kite paperback.

Sheila Dhar’s stories, essays, and memoirs include Begum Akhtar, Siddheshwari Bai, Fayyaz and Niaz Ahmed Khan, Kesar Bai Kerkar, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and Bhimsen Joshi. No writer has ever conveyed the ethos of this world and the quirks of its denizens with such wit, irreverence, perceptiveness, and empathy.

As a part of Delhi’s political elite, Sheila Dhar is also inimitably observant about celebrities as diverse as Indira Gandhi, the economist Joan Robinson, the film director Richard Attenborough, and Her Supreme Royal Highness the Queen of Tonga who, when asked what she does in her spare time, says with regal common sense, 'I just bees.'

Incisive intelligence, self-deprecating humour, and an original propensity to manipulate the English language for Indian contexts combine to make this book an absolute delight.

SHEILA DHAR (1929–2001) studied at Hindu College, Delhi, and obtained her MA in English (summa cum laude) from Boston University. She was a renowned storyteller, musician, and authority on Hindustani classical music.

ISBN 81-7824-244-3 / Rs 295 / 320pp / paperback / Published end 2008 / A Black Kite book

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