A LEGEND EVEN DURING HER OWN LIFETIME

Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, or Begum Akhtar as she was better known, was a legend even during her own lifetime, and one of the last great singers from the tawaif community.

Akhtari documents her eventful life and her music though essays and reminiscences by some of her closest friends and associates, and by people who knew her work deeply – such as Bismillah Khan, Lata Mangeshkar and Shubha Mudgal, among others.

The volume also includes a long conversation between Acharya Kailash Chandra Dev Brihaspati and Begum Akhtar, and interviews with her disciples Shanti Hiranand and Rita Ganguly.

A bestseller in the original Hindi – and now available in English for the first time – this is a book to treasure for all of Begum Akhtar’s fans and lovers of music.

Akhtari; The Life and Music of Begum Akhtar Ed. Yatindra Mishra; Trans. Maneesha Taneja 253pp, ~699, HarperCollins