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When Vidya, a music scholar, sets out to write a book on the history of Hindustani classical music, she uncovers the remnants of a time and a tradition fast receding: when singers embodied the ragas in their purest forms; when patrons were worshippers, not followers. Revealed through fascinating anecdotes, correspondence, legend and gossip are the highs and lows of the artistes’ lives, as they loved and lost, and moved on from mehfils to gramophones; we witness, too, the passion music provoked in the lives of its connoisseurs. Making our way through Benares, Calcutta, Bombay and New York, we meet Hira Bai and Anjali Bai – a mother-daughter duo known as much for their singing as for their beauty and intelligence; the gifted Allarakkhi Bi, a friend to Anjali Bai; the famous singer Husna Bai, Allarakkhi’s mother; and their descendants, who attempt to salvage what remains of the old music for new listeners on foreign shores… Mrinal Pande’s Sahela Re is a heartfelt ode to an era when music was sacred. Translated masterfully by Priyanka Sarkar, it will stay with you like the unforgettable memory of a precious song…

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