About Book
Akhtaribai Faizabadi, or Begum Akhtar as she was better known, was a legend even during her own lifetime, and one of the last of the great singers from the tawaif community. Akhtari documents her eventful life and her music through essays and reminiscences by some of her closest friends and associates, and by people who knew her work deeply -- including the likes of Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Shubha Mudgal, etc. The volume also includes long interviews with Begum Akhtar herself as well as some of her disciples.
A bestseller in the original Hindi -- and now available in English -- this is a volume to treasure for all of Begum Akhtar's fans and lovers of music.
About Author
"Yatindra Mishra is a poet, editor, and scholar of music and cinema. He has written Girija (2001), Devpriya (2007) and Sur Ki Baradari (2009) about the life and work of thumri singer Girija Devi, dancer Sonal Mansingh, and shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan respectively. He has also published an acclaimed book on playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, based on a series of interviews spanning a period of seven years, titled Lata: Sur-Gatha (2016) which won numerous awards including the National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema. Maneesha Taneja teaches Spanish at University of Delhi and translates between Spanish, English and Hindi. Her noteworthy translations include Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Nadine Gordimer’s collection of short stories, and Pablo Neruda’s memoirs into Hindi. Her recent translation of Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island has received much critical acclaim. "