'A tale finely told, where writing and music form body and soul. With a rare combination of poetic imagination, sociological insight and historical understanding, Sahela Re is a nostalgic but unsentimental evocation of the vanished golden age of Hindustani music and a lament for its present predicament. With truly creative unconcern for political correctness, it shows that, ironically, the golden age was in a colonized feudal society and its withering has come about in democratic India. It brings to life women artistes who pursued their beloved art uncompromisingly, following their emotions and dreams at a heavy personal cost. A tale that will haunt you long after you've read it.' -GEETANJALI SHREE

'Mrinal Pande, well-regarded Hindi writer and mediaperson, is also a trained Hindustani classical singer. Drawing from her knowledge of the art form and its history, she explores the world of Hindustani music with deep understanding and empathy. Her narrative mixes the tragic and the comic, and reveals the grace and grandeur, the sufferings and ironies, the darings and failures of lives involved in music. Sahela Re is a human document. A rare fictional account of a lesser-known ethos, the novel is a triumph of creative imagination.' -ASHOK VAJPEYI

'Like a lyrical detective, the writer takes us on a journey into a forgotten and forsaken world of music. As the book unspools, the hidden notes turn out to be as beautiful as the ones heard.' - NAMITA DEVIDAYAL

Mrinal Pande is a veteran journalist, television personality and author. She was the first woman in India to be the chief editor of a Hindi Daily, Hindustan; the first woman chairperson of Prasar Bharati (2010 to 2014), the apex body of the official Indian Broadcast Media; and the founder-president of the Indian Women's Press Corps, a national body of India's women journalists. Pande has authored several books in Hindi and English, including The Journey of Hindi Language Journalism in India: From Raj to Swaraj and Beyond, The Other Country: Dispatches from the Mofussil, My Own Witness: A Novel, Devi: Tales of the Goddess in Our Time, Daughter's Daughter, That Which Ram Hath Ordained or the Tale of Manna Seth and The Subject is Woman. She has also translated into English Gathering the Ashes, written originally in Hindi by Amritlal Nagar and 1857: The Real Story of the Great Uprising, written originally in Marathi by Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar. Pande has studied Hindustani (vocal) music from the Gandharva School, and drawing, design and the history of art and architecture at the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. In 2006, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her services in the field of journalism.

Priyanka Sarkar is an editor, translator and writer. She has translated Shivani's Bhairavi (2020) and Chitra Mudgal's Giligadu (2019). Her translations of short stories from Hindi to English have appeared in anthologies published by Yoda Press, OUP India, Women Unlimited, South Asian Review and Macmillan. Her translations have also featured on Scroll.in and Audible. As an editor, she has worked with Oxford University Press and Random House India, and was also the head of editorial at Konark Publishers. She is currently associated with the Rama Mehta Writing Grant, which aims to encourage creativity in English, Hindi, Urdu and Rajasthani among unpublished Rajasthani women writers.