Bombay Sisters

Special feature on C. Saroja & C. Lalitha, a.k.a. the Bombay Sisters (15-22), with expert notes on the elements of their style and an almost complete listing of their prodigious output of recordings. A photo of the sisters adorns the cover. And then there is the second part of the two-part article on Dancers & Festivals of India, offering a dispassionate but lively analysis, accompanied by a passionate piece, The Real Tragedy, from the pen of dancer Swapnasundari (23-33).

In our May issue, we carried a learned essay by S.K. Saxena on The Concept of Raga. Now we publish a Response limited to certain aspects, written by Hema Ramanathan, a Madras-based music scholar with adventitious roots in philosophy (35-37).  Many sabhanayaka-s continue to turn a blind eye to the problem of dwindling audiences for Carnatic music, but a rasika and a performer, showing greater interest, explore the reasons for it in brief articles (38 39). Arudra has written on the Tillana in his Format of Bharatanatyam series (43-44).