Book Excerpts

Jagjit rubbed shoulders with many other artistes, some of whom were as passionate as him. Among them […] Subhash Ghai, with whom he would forge a friendship that lasted his entire life. ‘I used to grab the gold medal in dramatics, he would win his for classical music,’ the producer-director said. ‘It was a portent of things to come.’ Ghai and

Music was not a part of [Jagjit Singh’s household’s] daily life, at least not in the way it is today. ‘Radios were a luxury not everyone could afford,’ Jagjit Singh had said of his early years. ‘World War II was on, and I remember going for walks with my father

Mainao stands on her toes at the threshold of youth. She is a cheerful, attractive girl with small, twinkling eyes and rounded limbs taut with the touch of sun and rain. Her complexion is a sunburnt brown, with tints of copper. When she laughs, her small eyes crinkle and look

The sun beat mercilessly down on the assembled crowd which had surrounded a house and its grounds. Over 300 people had thronged the site. To one side were parked two police jeeps and a van, with my car carefully parked in a shaded spot that diligent Sreedharan Pillai had found.

One of the drawbacks of studying at a boarding school is that one is condemned to rising at the crack of dawn for the rest of one’s life, even on Sundays and other holidays. Having been hauled out of bed at an ungodly hour from the age of six to