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Akhtari by Yatindra Mishra

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, 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.

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.