Kamala Chakravarty

[2] Along with her elder sister, Lakshmi Shastri, she studied at dance pioneer Uday Shankar's India Culture Centre,[3] an academy based at Almora, in the remote north Indian state of Uttarakhand.

[7] The economic effects of World War II forced the academy's closure in 1944,[8] after which Chakravarty moved to Calcutta and then joined her sister and brothers-in-law in Malad, near Bombay.

[22][23] In December that year, she and Rakha accompanied Shankar and American violinist Yehudi Menuhin during their Human Rights Day duet in New York,[24][25] which was the first recital of Indian classical music to be broadcast globally.

[29] Among other Shankar albums, she plays tambura on In San Francisco (1967)[30] and Transmigration Macabre (1973), a soundtrack recorded in 1968 with French experimental percussionists Les Structures Sonores[31] for the art film Viola.

[32] Later in 1968, she, Lakshmi and Jitendra Abhisheki were the singers in Shankar's Festival from India ensemble,[33] which recorded an eponymous double album in Los Angeles before touring the United States.

[34] In August 1971, Chakravarty accompanied Shankar, sarod master Ali Akbar Khan and Rakha at the Concert for Bangladesh, held at New York's Madison Square Garden.

[36] Although she provided a minor role in the performance, as the tambura player,[37] George Harrison's introduction of Chakravarty to the New York audience ensured that her name became linked to the event.

[15] Having nursed Uday in the weeks before his death in September 1977 and similarly cared for Shubho after the latter had attempted suicide in 1970, she remained a close friend of the musician's extended family.