Namita Devidayal Biography and latest books by Namita Devidayal

Namita Devidayal, author of The Music Room and After Taste, was born in 1968 and graduated from Princeton University. She currently works as a journalist with The Times of India and lives in Mumbai. She has a keen interest in music and there was a time when she aspired to evolve as a professional singer and be the inheritor of the Jaipur Gharana.

After Taste
Diwali 1984. Mummyji, the matriarch of a prosperous mithai business family, lies comatose in a Bombay hospital. Manipulative, determined, and seemingly invincible, Mummyji has held together her family through bribes of money, endless food, and adoration.

Surrounding her are her four children: the weak and ineffectual Rajan Papa who is desperately in need of cash; Sunny, the dynamic head of the business with an ugly marriage and a demanding mistress; Suman, the spoilt beauty of the family who is determined to get her hands on Mummyji’s best jewels; and Saroj, Suman’s unlucky sister, who has always lived in her shadow. Each one of them wants Mummyji to die.

Aftertaste tells the story of one business family and its bitter dynamics: of resentful bahus, emasculated sons, controlling mothers-in-law, and rapacious siblings. For at the heart of family lies money, not love. Full of rare period details and insights into the world of Baniya families, Aftertaste is worldly, astute, and utterly riveting.

The Music Room
The Music Room, gives us the inside view of the life and times of the legends of Hindustani Music and their ways. As a ten-year-old girl, Namita was taken to one of the icons of the Jaipur Gharana , Dhondutai Kulkarni for her music lessons. Dhondutai, was living under sub par conditions and was the disciple of the famous and often controversial Kesarbai Kerkar. Kerkar sees the glimpses of young Kesar in the young girl and accepts the girl under her tutelage. The long association of learning and admiration begins, which continues for almost three decades.

Namita Devidayal, takes the readers through the history of Jaipur Gharana and hindustani music in general over the period of 100 years with Dhondutai Kulkarni. The history covers the legendary Alladiya Khan and his musician family, Kesarbai Kerkar, the finest singers of the Jaipur Gharana and the life of Dhondutai Kulkarni.

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