Joy, Awe and Tears: My Association with Sargam by Shireen Isal. Published in 2022 by the author, email: shireen@associationsargam.com. Pp: 139. Price: £7.85 + postage.
I would like to warn the reader right away that this is not an objective critical review but rather a subjective response upon reading a book written by one I have known for many years in her capacity first as my manager in France, and then as a friend. Shireen Isal (pictured) grew up in Bombay and then moved to Paris with her husband, Jean Pierre, and later to London. Her book Joy, 
Awe and Tears: My Association with Sargam records memories of four decades of serving the arts of Indian classical music and dance through the organization that she founded and named Sargam.
As a former performer of contemporary dance myself, Isal’s contribution to the arts is of great personal significance to me. Performers take physical, financial and emotional risks when travelling to meet their audiences. But I can vouch that to have an Isal assure them of support in all of the above is a blessing for the artiste and no small task for the one who undertakes to fulfill any part of the tasks involved.
The book is written in a fluent conversational style and is easy to read. Isal has also taken great care not to misrepresent any of the artistes or reveal them in a less than a glowing light; she explains in the prolog that it was not for her to betray the personal trials and tribulations of her artistes. She does, however, talk about her own responses to betrayals and bestowals while taking care to protect the artiste. What is it like to work with divas? What secrets of human feeling did she learn from Bismillah Khan Saheb? How do audiences differ in the United Kingdom and in France? Isal talks about her first encounters with Indian dance through Sunil Kothari, whose second language is dance, and how this so deeply affected her that it led to her taking on artiste management. These detailed cameo portraits make the book both more gentle and passionate.
She says little or nothing about whether or not her venture was financially productive for her or not. Perhaps this was less important to her than the quality of her exchanges with the artistes she worked with. And she sponsored all the greats of Indian music and dance — Khan Saheb, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Lakshmi Shankar, Malavika Sarukkai, Swapnasundari, Rohinton Cama, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, L. Subramaniam, Aruna Sairam, Viji and Mythili Prakash and many more amazing artistes. I personally was present when Cama performed in Paris and was deeply moved both by his performance and by the delirious rapturous response especially of the teenagers in the audience. And the hall was packed with people of all ages, which speaks of how managers and presenters need to match the audience with any stellar performer. Isal does this, in addition to everything else she undertakes in service to the artistes and their arts.
This book is more than a personal memoir; it is a go-to archive for anyone interested in learning about artistes from India in Europe. Isal writes about her artistes chronologically, beginning in June 1979 with myself, and ending in 2018 with a performance by Begum Parveen Sultana. And then Isal concludes: "Sargam and I are finally hanging up our boots… The magic of Indian music and dance will, however, never cease for me: it will always move and inspire me, its beauty reducing me, as it has so often, to a state of Joy, Awe and Tears.” So read this modest love song; it will move you too!
UTTARA ASHA
COORLAWALA
Coorlawala teaches dance at Barnard College/Columbia University and co-curates the Erasing Borders Dance Festival in New York City.