When Vidya, a music scholar, sets out to write a book on the history of Hindustani classical music, she uncovers the remnants of a time and a tradition fast receding: when singers embodied the ragas in their purest forms; when patrons were worshippers, not followers.Revealed through fascinating anecdotes, correspondence, legend and gossip are the highs and lows of the artistes' lives, as they loved and lost, and moved on from mehfils to gramophones;...