Sahela Re : A Novel

By Mrinal Pande| Trans. Priyanka Sarkar

₹ 499.00 inclusive of all taxes

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About the book

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…

Pages: 268

Available in: Paperback

Language: English

Mrinal Pande

Mrinal Pande is a veteran journalist, television personality and author. She was the first woman in India to be the chief editor of a Hindi Daily, Hindustan; the first woman chairperson of Prasar Bharati (2010 to 2014), the apex body of the official Indian Broadcast Media; and the founder-president of the Indian Women’s Press Corps, a national body of India’s women journalists. Pande has authored several books in Hindi and English, including The Journey of Hindi Language Journalism in India: From Raj to Swaraj and Beyond, The Other Country: Dispatches from the Mofussil, My Own Witness: A Novel, Devi: Tales of the Goddess in Our Time, Daughter’s Daughter, That Which Ram Hath Ordained or the Tale of Manna Seth and The Subject is Woman. She has also translated into English Gathering the Ashes, written originally in Hindi by Amritlal Nagar and 1857: The Real Story of the Great Uprising, written originally in Marathi by Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar. Pande has studied Hindustani (vocal) music from the Gandharva School, and drawing, design and the history of art and architecture at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her services in the field of journalism.

Trans. Priyanka Sarkar

Priyanka Sarkar is an editor, translator and writer. She has translated Shivani’s Bhairavi (2020) and Chitra Mudgal’s Giligadu (2019). Her translations of short stories from Hindi to English have appeared in anthologies published by Yoda Press, OUP India, Women Unlimited, South Asian Review and Macmillan. Her translations have also featured on Scroll.in and Audible. As an editor, she has worked with Oxford University Press and Random House India, and was also the head of editorial at Konark Publishers. She is currently associated with the Rama Mehta Writing Grant, which aims to encourage creativity in English, Hindi, Urdu and Rajasthani among unpublished Rajasthani women writers.