You can live all your life in a neighbourhood, and not discover its secrets. Coming across the names of Dombivli, Thakurli, Mulund, in a book about a Hindustani classical great was both a surprise, and a delight. Writer and journalist Sumana Ramanan’s part-biography, part-anthropological journey, The Secret Master: Arun Kashalkar and a Journey to the Edge of Music (Context) is as much a discovery of the music culture running through the working-class suburbs, as it is about a non-pareil practitioner of Hindustani music.

The book follows the journey of Pandit Arun Kashalkar, a student of the famed Pandit Gajananrao ‘Gajananbuwa’ Joshi. The eldest of six brothers, four of them musicians, Kashalkar’s adept control, expertise of khayal gayaki, and command of the Agra-Gwalior-Jaipur gharanas is common knowledge among the art’s highest echelons, but not to the mainstream audience. Over seven years, Ramanan followed, and learned from Pandit Kashalkar to write about the life, times, and milieu of this artiste.