Nilina's Song: The Life of Naina Devi

Nilina’s Song is an engaging biography of the musician, Naina Devi, whose extraordinary life took her through fundamental changes of environment and fortune. Each new turning point reflected significant shifts in history as well as geography, from the cultural ferment of post-Renaissance Bengal to the glamour of Viceregal Simla; from the glittering social life of royalty in the Raj era to the elegance of the Nawabi lifestyles of Awadh and Rampur; and finally to a newly independent Delhi re-discovering its identity. Through extensive interviews with her family and friends, the author traces the saga of a woman who re-invented herself and her persona, from the young Nilina, grand-daughter of Keshub Chandra Sen, steeped in the philosophy of the Brahmo Samaj, to Rani Nina Ripjit Singh, wife of an aristocrat of Punjab, adapting herself to a different kind of sophistication and refinement and then, as circumstances changed, to Naina Devi, seeker of music, who found her peace and her vocation in the world of the performance arts.