Podcast Summary

New Books Network:

Interview with Neelum Saran Gour, Author of "Requiem in Raga Janki" (Penguin Viking, 2018) Host: Dr. Arnab Dutta Roy
Guest: Prof. Neelum Saran Gour
Date: February 4, 2026

Main Theme

This episode features a deep and intimate conversation between Dr. Arnab Dutta Roy and acclaimed Indian author Neelum Saran Gour, centered on her award-winning novel Requiem in Raga Janki. The discussion revolves around Gour's exploration of the extraordinary life of Jankibai, a forgotten icon of Hindustani classical music, while also painting a rich tapestry of Allahabad and Varanasi’s bygone eras, the syncretic culture of Indian music, and the experimentations with genre and voice in contemporary Indian fiction.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Neelum Saran Gour’s Journey as Writer and Educator

• Origins in Storytelling

  • Gour speaks about her childhood as an only child, building imaginary worlds and narratives even before she recognized it as “writing.”
  • Quote:

    "I was an only child... I lived, I moved between imaginary worlds... Do you see? I never thought of it as writing. That was pretty much my normal existence." (03:11)

• Academic and Pedagogic Philosophy

  • She clarifies she became an academic “by chance and not by choice,” but devoted herself to the craft nevertheless.
  • As an educator, her focus was not on exams but on immersing students in “the ras of the work” — the essential aesthetic experience.
  • Quote:

    "I tried to make them forget the examination. I tried to make them experience what in Sanskrit we call the ras of the work. To enjoy it, to enter into the soul of it ... the education not of the mind, but of something else within." (05:28)

2. Introducing ‘Requiem in Raga Janki’

• Gour describes the novel as her “luckiest book,” born out of creative compulsion and not publisher expectation.

• The narrative draws from the life of Jankibai, exploring the internal and external struggles of an artist negotiating between the pain of lived experience and the transcendence of art.

  • Quote:

    "It was like singing alone in a locked room. I didn't know if there was an audience for this kind of thing... I was mandated by some kind of compulsion. Bye bye. Janki Bai herself put it that way." (07:09)

3. The Enigma of Jankibai Chapanchuri

• Biographical Elements

  • Jankibai’s rise from poverty in Varanasi, her survival after being stabbed 56 times (hence the name ‘Chapanchuri’), her move to Allahabad, and her emergence as a legendary gramophone-era singer are detailed with nuance.
  • Gour points out the challenges of researching Jankibai: her memoirs mixed fact and fiction, demanding the author’s own acts of imaginative reconstruction.

• Resistance and Representation

  • Janki’s significance lies in her defiance of social conventions: as a woman who performed without relying on her appearance, and as a performer who became “the genuine article” in a male-dominated world.
  • Quote:

    "She broke the conventional stereotype of the woman performer, because audiences expected a woman performer to be beautiful... Janki was anything but that. She often performed behind a curtain, but thereafter she discarded the curtain because she stood out as the genuine article, the real artist for whom the appearance, the visuals, did not matter, the male gaze did not matter." (14:36)

  • Gour discusses the pain and loneliness in Janki’s life, balanced by the ecstasy of her art.

4. City, Era, and the Spirit of Place

• Evocation of Allahabad and Varanasi
  • Gour’s novel intermingles Jankibai’s life with the pulse of the historic cities she inhabited.
  • The author describes how she let “the novel breathe its own time” and allowed space and time to inform the narrative organically.
  • Quote:

    "We carry place and time within us. Janki carries the place where she lives and the time in which she lives within her. And so I too, in the process of writing, did not sit down academically and say, well, now, how do I represent the city? Or how do I capture the age? ... In writing about Janki, the city crept in, the age crept in." (19:02)

5. Music as Metaphor and Nexus of Cultures

• Interwoven Stories and Civilizational Confluence

  • Drawing on stories heard in childhood from her musicologist father, Gour incorporates myth, folklore, and real anecdotes—such as the tale of Narad and encounters between musicians across religious divides.

  • She emphasizes the syncretic roots of Hindustani classical music, which brings together Hindu and Muslim traditions in ways that transcend communal binaries.

  • Quote:

    "In the world of Hindustani music, there is no Hindu or Muslim binary. You cannot separate the influences in the Carnatic music maybe, but not in Hindustani classical music... I'm trying to show that music here in my book is a faith larger than institutionalized religions." (23:56)

  • The novel showcases music as a “faith larger than institutionalized religions,” with cultural coexistence as perhaps Gour’s “dominant subject in all my books.” (24:55)

6. Genre Experimentation and Language Play

• Genres within the Novel
  • The novel stretches across biography, tragedy, comedy, romance, folklore, songs, letters, and oral narratives—driven more by intuition than conscious experimentation.
  • The one conscious choice: incorporating the region’s languages and rhythms (Avadhi, Bhojpuri, etc.) into the English prose.
  • Quote:

    "Often writing is like swimming, and you're swimming in order to come up to the surface and breathe before going under and then coming up again to the surface to breathe. And so what I was trying to do is I was trying to stay afloat... And so none of this experimentation, as you call it, was done intentionally." (27:32)

7. Core Message

• When asked for a single takeaway, Gour emphasizes the idea of cultural collaboration as a mighty stream, transcending boundaries.
  • Quote:

    "Let us not bother about the banks. Life is a mightier stream, you know, Peace is a mightier stream. So if one idea was to be selected, perhaps it would be this one." (31:45)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Ras of Literature:

  "I tried to make them forget the examination... to experience what in Sanskrit we call the ras of the work." (05:25)

• On Jankibai’s Resilience:

  "She was stabbed 56 times and was left for dead, but then managed to recover." (12:43)

• On Cultural Syncretism in Music:

  "Music here in my book is a faith larger than institutionalized religions... my dominant subject is... cultural coexistence." (24:56)

• On Letting the City and Time Infuse the Novel:

  "I let myself go with the flow... In writing about Janki, the city crept in, the age crept in." (19:03)

• On Literary Experimentation:

  "The only thing which was consciously done was accommodating these languages and the rhythms of these languages." (29:56)

Memorable Readings (Selected Passages)

• Gour reads the opening section of her novel, featuring a “crusty old 90-year-old woman” and stories of musical eccentricity and pride.

  "You want me to talk about her after all these years? So be it. Maybe you can get a book out of all this. Me, I am content to turn this raga into a requiem..." (32:28)

• Anecdotes of idiosyncratic maestros like Rajab Ali Khan and Haidery Khan, blending history, humor, and the ethos of artistic excellence.

  "If you did commit the folly of rashly beheading me, think what a loss it would mean to your state. A mere princeling like you, when dead is easily replaced but never an artist like me." (38:07)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:54] – Gour discusses her journey as a writer, storyteller, academic, and educator
• [07:09] – Introduction to Requiem in Raga Janki and the compulsion behind its creation
• [10:45] – Jankibai’s biography, legend of ‘Chapanchuri’, and challenges of historical research
• [18:32] – The interplay of character, city, and era within the narrative
• [22:35] – The role of music, myth, and inter-religious harmony
• [27:32] – On genre blending and linguistic experimentation in the novel
• [31:07] – Core takeaway about cultural coexistence as a “mightier stream”
• [32:28 – 39:19] – Author reads vivid passages: the voice of a 90-year-old narrator and unforgettable musician anecdotes

Conclusion

This episode is an evocative and erudite journey through Neelum Saran Gour’s literary and personal worlds. Through the lens of a forgotten musical genius, Requiem in Raga Janki becomes both the portrait of an artist and a eulogy for the cosmopolitan, plural, and artistic life of North India’s historic cities. Gour’s wit, wisdom, and love of language—infused with cultural nostalgia and hope—make both the novel and this conversation essential listening for lovers of Indian literature, music, and history.