“Raja, maharaja, rais, hakim and hukkum, all read us...we sell in Burma, Ceylon, Africa, Fiji and Siam... With us, your advertisement will...
“Raja, maharaja, rais, hakim and hukkum, all read us...we sell in Burma, Ceylon, Africa, Fiji and Siam... With us, your advertisement will go far. Rate per page Rs 15, half a page Rs 8, a quarter page Rs 4!”
Kings and emperors are long gone. It has been decades since Siam, Burma and Ceylon got new names. And Rs 4 won’t get you a thing today. But, nearly nine decades after it first promised advertisers global readership, Sangeet, the oldest surviving periodical on Indian classical music and dance, is still soldiering on from a small corner of western Uttar Pradesh.
Its home is Hathras, a city around 45 km from Mathura that is part of the Braj lore of Krishna. There was a time Hathras was famous across the north for its highly musical nautankis. Now its name mostly evokes memories of the horrific 2019 rape-murder.
In the heart of the city, off Mursan Gate, lies Gali Gangadhar, a lane typical of small-town Uttar Pradesh. Traffic and mayhem mark the bazar ahead and open drains line the entrance to homes whose faded grandeur shows up only in their carved doors, latticed balconies and stained-glass windows.
Locals refer to Gali Gangadhar as Kaka Gali after the man who is arguably...
