The Music Room

“Many thousand miles away from the earth, a space capsule sent out many years ago contains in it several recordings and photographs that define the earth, in a way. The idea was to introduce the earth to alien species should the space capsule encounter them in distant space and time. Among the musical recordings was an old 78 rpm record discovered in a little known New York shop,this was Kesarbai Kerkar’s immortal rendering of a bhajan in Raag Bhairavi – ‘Janaat Kahaan re’.“

The Music Room

It’s a story of three maestro of Indian classical music moreover Carnatic music.It is a bit about the strange genius of Kesarbai Kerkar. It is also about her guru, Alladiya Khan, a doyen of the Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, and mostly about Dhondutai Kulkarni, who happened to be both Alladiya Khan’s and Kesarbai’s student.While two of whom attained musical greatness, the third, Dhondutai lived a life of solitude, perfecting and practising her craft in relative anonymity, along with a handful of students .The book also describes how her father nourished her career and protected her..as women and music never went together.

The author was also a student of Dhondutai.So this book has real events and nostalgia about her teacher and her devotion to music .A must read to know more about Indian classical music and how devoted one can be for her music.A story of fame to obscurity to fame……