It was a sad day for the music world when the oldest living vaggeyakara, Balantrapu Rajanikanta Rao breathed his last in Vijayawada at the age of 98, on 22 April 2018. He reached the pinnacle of glory even in death when he was awarded the highest State honour, a 21 gun salute by the Andhra government.

For most of her first 50 years, she was celebrated for her beauty and charm. For the next 35 years of untold suffering, she was an invalid, steadily declining in health, wheelchair bound, needing a caregiver all the time. She was totally bedridden towards the end of her life—which came on 1 January 2018. This was the tragedy of Radha Viswanathan, M.S. Subbulakshmi’s stepdaughter, steadfast companion and sterling vocal accompanist.

The year was 1989, the city Paris. The French were celebrating the bicentenary of the revolution. I had accompanied Sarma Mama (as I called him) to France and we lived in a serviced apartment in the suburb of Chatelet for two months. Sarma…

Sukanya Ramgopal has carved a singular place for herself in the world of Carnatic music as the only top-ranked woman ghatam player. A prime disciple of ghatam maestro T.H. ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram, her passion for the percussion instrument has taken her around the world.