reading by NAMITA DEVIDAYAL

Monday, January 28, 2008

Namita Devidayal (born 1968) is a consultant with the Times of India, Mumbai, and writes on subjects as varied as music, money and motherhood. She graduated with a degree in Politics from Princeton University, and has worked, during the last decade, with The Times of India group as well as the Wall Street Journal group in New York. She began her education in Hindustani classical music at an early age, with Dhondutai Kulkarni of the Jaipur gharana as her teacher.

The Music Room (Random House, 2007) is Devidayal’s first book. This engaging memoir traces her growing up and coming of age music; it also draws the reader into a complex and confluential culture in which sharp-edged identities such as ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’, ‘progressive’ and ‘traditional’ melt in a relay of syntheses and epiphanies. The Music Room has been received with critical acclaim as well as popular enthusiasm, and has featured on the 2007 favourite-book lists of people ranging from Sonia Gandhi to Shyam Benegal and Ramachandra Guha.

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ARCHIVES of January , 2008