Author: Juthika Roy
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 252
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788172764685
Description
Juthika Roy, iconic exponent of bhakti sangeet, began her carrer in mid-1930s through concerts and disc-records. By the 1950s, with guidance from her gurus and composers - mainly Kamal Dasgupta, Pandit Mathur and Bhishmadev Chatterjee - she became a sought-after singer of bhajans and other devotional forms in concert circuits from Kolkata to Mumbai and Ahemdabad.
She also had a very successful concert tour of Sri Lanka and East Africa. Her rise to fame went parallel to the great boom in the 78-rpm disc-record industry to which her contribution of around 340 songs in Hindi and Bengali made her a top-selling artiste of the HMV and other record labels. There was a time when many middle class homes even in small towns repeatedly played her three-minute Meera and other Krishna bhakti records - thus making her a household name.
Her near-ascetic life with very simple tastes in food and clothing made her spiritual pursuits through music an easy task - which eventually lifted bhakti sangeet out of temples and bhajan mandals and gave it concert status. She was perhaps the only artiste of the era in North India who could hold concerts purely devoted to bhakti geet.
This book of her memories adds a valuable chapter to the music history of her times.
Contents
Contents
Preface
Translator’s Note
In Appreciation
Publisher’s Note
My Story
1. Birth and Early Childhood
2. Bagerhaat
3. Early Days in Senhati
4. Growing up in Senhati
5. My Siblings
6. Tangail
7. Kolkata
8. Intial Years
9. In the Throes of Death
10. Under the Tutelage of Ustad Bhismadev
11. To Allahabad
12. First Visit to Bombay
13. The War Years
14. Post-Independence
15. Visit to Sri Lanka
16. Reminiscing about Functions held in Kolkata
17. Association with Radio
18. Tour of East Africa
19. House in Shyampukur Street
20. The Seventies
21. Is It a Dream or a Reality?
Complete List of Juthika Roy’s-Songs
Index