‘The salary looks good, but I’m on contract. There’s a permanent sword hanging over my head. The minute they think I’ve stepped out of line, I’m out.’ Janaki makes a wry face. ‘But a room of my own would be something.’

‘Think about it. I feel like a cup of tea. You?’

‘It’s time for Shantanu to come back. Shouldn’t I leave?’

‘Let’s forget about timetables for once’.

Sharada makes tea. Janaki asks hesitantly, ‘Have you been to see Guruji?’

‘Hm.’

‘You’ve been?’

‘Hm.’

‘Animatai says he refuses to teach you. Just keeps you sitting.’

‘Hm.’ Sharada pours the tea and they come out again.

‘Aren’t you hurt?’

‘I come home and weep.’

‘Then?’

‘I decided long ago I wouldn’t let anything he says or does hurt me. I love his style. I want to master it. There’s no place for egos here.’

‘But he’s blocking your growth.’

‘One day he’ll see that the bandishes I compose and sing are rooted in his gharana. Composing them is not a sign of disrespect. It is exactly the reverse. I’m confident he’ll start teaching me again and give to me as generously of his knowledge as he has done till now.’

Janaki examines Sharada’s face above the rim of her cup. She is a proud woman. How can she willingly take this humiliation?

‘I wouldn’t have taken this treatment.’

‘It’s not easy.’ Sharada smiles wanly. ‘We are very far from his times. In those days the guru’s word could not be questioned. Perhaps it was easier for Guruji not to question his guru. But we are full of questions. We believe it’s our right to ask. I am happy when you ask me a question. If I don’t have the answer, I try to find out. But if I ask Guruji and he doesn’t have the answer, he flies into a rage.

‘He has thought deeply about music. He has explored it, arrived at his own individual way of singing his tradition. You can hear that for yourself. But point this out to him and he’ll say he sings exactly as his guru taught him to. The claim is simply not true. But he will not assume the responsibility of being who he is, in the tradition and yet a forerunner, carrying it forward. He wants to show he is Gandhari, blindfolded in his tradition, refusing to look beyond what is prescribed.