Translator's Preface I am glad to have been of service in the task of translating this biography of Pt. Dinkar Kaikini, originally written by Shri Sadashiv Bakre in Marathi. Before Dinkarji passed away, he had expressed to me his wish that I should serve as the translator of this biography. Although his wish could not be fulfilled in his lifetime, I can take some small comfort in having completed the project of translation before the first anniversary of his passing. My relationship with Dinkarji was at a multiplicity of levels. His younger brother is my friend from early childhood; his wife Shashikala and my wife Shanta have been close friends since their primary school years. Our families have been friends for several decades, and to cap it all, Dinkarji acted as a kind of a mentor and guru for me when I developed a serious interest in Hindustani music in my middle age. The primary direction of my interest was scholarly, and not along the lines of becoming a performer. But out of a conviction that any kind of study in music will remain incomplete without some experience of making music, and of the profound involvement and joy it brings, I sought out some guidance in learning vocal music from many teachers. Dinkarji was one of them. So I became accustomed to a dual relationship - due respect on my part while receiving musical guidance and easy, open friendship (made possible by the closeness in our ages, he being my senior by only 7 years) at other times. Although my opportunities for getting long rigourous taleem from him were limited, due to restrictions of time and space, I think I got enough opportunity (through discussions as well as singing sessions, albeit short) to absorb a little of his way of thinking about music - nazar as we call it - and get some understanding of it. As anyone who has thought about music will know, this is perhaps the most difficult thing to acquire, and the acquisition is never completed. However, no matter how well one knows a person, there are always facets of his life and personality that are revealed by a biography such as this. I learned many things about my teacher (and happily, friend as well) from Shri Bakre's careful compilation of the many facts of Dinkarji's life (musical and domestic), and his insightful discussion of Dinkarji's musical philosophy. I feel privileged and fortunate in having been entrusted with the task of translation, because of the richer understanding that it has brought me. Of course, any translation suffers from certain natural barriers. There are the obvious linguistic barriers that arise from differences in vocabulary, grammar, syntax and idiom. They happily rule out any possibility of a literal translation (which would be disastrous for readability in any case.) More subtle are the challenges that come from differences in the cultural allusions that are implicit in any language, irrespective of the subject being written about. When the subject is as suffused with cultural underpinnings as Music is, such challenges become quite serious. I have tried to counter these by adding parenthetical explanations and translator's footnotes in various places as needed. I can only hope that this translation adequately reflects the spirit and the content of the original. Smt. Shashikala Kaikini and Smt. Aditi Upadhya have read parts of the translation and made useful suggestions, for which I am grateful. I am sure errors and inadequacies remain, but I claim them as my own. Ramesh Gangolli 4th January, 2011