This is an unedited version of an article that appeared in the Tehelka, October 9, 2004 Yesterday, we lost one of India’s finest voices. Yesterday, another window into the past was shut on us. Yesterday, I lost Shobhatai – more familiar to music lovers as Shobha Gurtu, the 79 year old thumri exponent who left an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of innumerable fans. As a child, I heard Shobha Gurtu on television, and found myself immediately

This is an unedited version of a piece that appeared in the Times of India, Mumbai, Februay 25, 2004 Renaming institutions to ostensibly bring back lost glory and to weed out foreign elements in Indian society has been a favourite pastime of the saffron brigade. The recent move to rechristen the Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Academy, Bhopal, by Anup Mishra, Minister for Culture in the Madhya Pradesh BJP Government, therefore does not come as a complete surprise (TT 7/2/2004).

This is an unedited version of a piece that appeared in the DNA, Mumbai, February 18, 2006 Come January and arts’ circles are abuzz with rumours about possible Padma awardees.  Not before long, hopes and anxieties are met or put to rest, when the headlines carry the final list of awardees.  And the government makes its ‘commitment’ to the arts evident to the people of this country by way of yet another of these token gestures.  Looking back though,

This article was first published in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XLI No.21, May 27-June 2, 2006  Lakshmi Subramanian’s article (EPW, April 8-14, 2006) on the role of the accompanist in the larger aesthetic of Indian music presented a fresh look at the issue, particularly so, after the now media-sensationlised and much-hyped ‘Shanmukhananda Hall’ episode.  Ironically, it took an episode of involving celebrity musicians to bring media attention to the role of the accompanist, and yet, the discussion that