AUTHOR INTERVIEW Unearthing a forgotten life

ecember, 1911, Delhi: Emper- Muslim gentleman from Azamgarh Dor is crowned the ab- after her marriage fell apart, she con- solute monarch of verted to Islam and took the British India and simul- name Badi Malka Jaan, and taneously its capital for- the young Eileen became mally shifts from Gauhar Jaan. to Delhi. The Young Gauhar learnt special event is the basics of music in marked by the per- , where they formance of two spe- were settled initially. Lat- cial artistes, one of er, when Malka Jaan whom sings ‘Yeh jalsa shifted to Kolkata, Gauhar taajposhi ka mubarak honed her musical skills in ho mubarak ho!’(congrat- the culturally vibrant city. They ulations for this coronation), to became favourites at the court of huge applause from the gathered roy- Nawab , the Lucknow alty from all over India. The two nawab who had shifted to the city. It singers are specially presented to the was here, in 1902, that Gauhar was Emperor, who gifts them with a hun- chosen as the first Indian artiste to dred guineas. One of the them was have a gramophone record by Fred- Janki Bai. And the other, well, she erick William Gaisberg, the Gramo- was the first singer from India to have phone Company’s first India agent. a gramophone record, on which, after Sampath has brought alive the for- every song, she used to flamboyantly gotten life of Gauhar Jaan in his announce her name: “My name is meticulously-researched book. But it Gauhar Jaan!” wasn’t an easy task to find details April, 2010, Delhi: Vikram Sam- about the singer who had 600 path, a young finance management records in 20 languages, which had professional in Bangalore, proudly her sing , and Ghaz- watches as Vice-President of India, als apart from songs in Arabic, Per- Hamid Ansari, unveils the result of his sian, Tamil, Telugu and even French. painstacking research: My Name is Sampath, around 30, first got in- Gauhar Jaan — The Life and Times of terested in Jaan when he read a doc- a Musician (Rupa & Co). ument with Gauhar Jaan’s name dur- Nearly a 100 years separate the ing his research for his earlier book on two events, but this much time was the royal family. “She was the enough to obliterate from public first artiste to have a record in India. memory one of the most versatile What drove her to settle down in classical singers of those times, who Mysore on a measely pension in her was known as much for her talent later life, that propelled me to find out and beauty as her flamboyant lifestyle more about her,”says Sampath. “The during the course of her lifetime that process was quite difficult but fasci- spanned between 1873 and 1930. nating because she was someone who Sampath has done something re- was a celebrity of her times but is al- markable by unearthing a treasure most unknown now. There was a lot trove of information about Gauhar of gossip about her, like the time she Jaan who died in Mysore, where she threw a party to 2,000 people when had taken shelter in her last days as a her cat had a litter of five kittens.” guest of the king of Mysore. Nobody Sampath, a trained Carnatic vocal- even knows where she was buried. ist, had to go through a learning Jaan was an exceptional beauty process during the research as he but it was her talent that made her had no idea about the nuances of Hin- memorable for people of that era. dustani classical music which Gauhar Added to that was the way she led her Jaan practiced. “It was a great jour- life — records say that she did not ney into her life that saw the heights wear the same jewellery set twice, of success and the depths of misery,” and would travel through Kolkata he says. His only regret is that he was streets on a horse buggy when Indi- not able to find her grave. “There is no ans were forbidden from doing so by account of her grave. I got records of the British. her hospital bills, even the death cer- She was born as Eileen Angelina tificate copy, but no details of her bur- Yeoward to an Anglo-Indian mother ial,” he says with a tinge of regret. and Armenian Christian father. Her “She certainly deserved much more, maternal grandfather was a British which is why I wanted to bring back soldier and grandmother a Hindu. her authentic memory.” And when her mother married a UTPAL BORPUJARI