Author Conversation: Namita Devidayal launches The Music Room with a reading and conversation with dancer-singer Rajika Puri
VIEW EVENT DETAILS'A must for every musician and music lover' Ravi Shankar ''. The Music Room is essential reading for lovers of Indian music, movingly illuminating the transition of Indian classical music from its confident past to a fragile present.' Gita Mehta, author of A River Sutra and Karma Cola Join us for the New York book launch of Namita Devidayal, author of The Music Room, a bestseller in India and winner of the 2008 Crossword Popular Book Award. She will be joined by Rajika Puri, internationally acclaimed exponent of classical Indian dance. When Devidayal was ten years old, her mother took her to a seamy neighborhood in Bombay to study music with classical singer Dhondutai, the last living disciple of two of the finest Indian classical singers of the twentieth century. Devidayal will give a short performance followed by a reading and interview with Puri in which they will talk about her memoir and Indian classical music in a fast-changing world. Followed by a book signing. Namita Devidayal was born in 1968, and has studied with Dhondutai from the age of 10. She left India to attend Princeton University and then returned to become a journalist with The Times of India, she lives in Mumbai. Rajika Puri, trained in Bharata Natyam and Odissi, is best known for her creative melding of different techniques with Indian dance. She conceives of the music for her own works, such as TAPASYA: Ascetic Power and Tales of the Ganges (Joyce SoHo, May 2009 upcoming). Rajika also writes and lectures on dance, music and theater both Western and Indian. Please join us at Asia Society's New York Headquarters or online via live Webcast. Internet listeners will be able to ask questions and offer comments via email during the webcast. Please send your questions to [email protected]