 This is the story of a musical past, of the incredible beginnings of entertainment in the gramophone era, of a technology and a community of women performers whose confluence laid the foundations of India's music industry. Here we are talking about an art form, evolution of art forms of different kinds in music and the vehicles that take these art forms to the audience. The 1900s were witness to the incredible beginnings of musical entertainment. A new platform of performance emerged for professional singers beyond the courts. Known as the Baiji's, their music now found admiring listeners throughout the country. Even Geisberg was the principal recording engineer of the Gramophone and Typewriters Limited. He arrived in Kolkata in 1902 to set up a recording studio and soon realised the difficulty of the task that lay ahead. Though a foreigner of means, even Geisberg knew that with little knowledge of India's diverse music culture, finding talented singers was not going to be easy. I think she is a very interesting transitional figure, Gohar, and what really was the catalyst for that change was the gramophone because without the gramophone, none of these things would have actually happened. Gohar Jan was very good, he used to do a lot of good things. The moment of Baiji's in gramophone recording saw the beginning of the music market in India. Years after Gohar Jan's first commercial recording in 1902, names like Janki Bai, Chappan Shuri, Ms. Fani Bala, Ms. Godavari, Jadumani Dasi and several others rang out in the industry corridors and among the music lovers of the country. Iqbal Banas, Anumari Bai, Bibo Bai, Jaipur Se, Rasunan Bai, Siddharth Shri Bai, he was very famous, he was famous all over the world. Chumri is put in many small corners, like when you are singing in the evening, I can also sing in the evening, I can sing in the evening, I can sing in the evening, so many roads are destroyed, that is why it is destroyed, destroyed. The reason why Kolkata and Bombay were important centers for the wives is because these were places where there were lots of people and there were potentially large audiences because you will find that unlike male Ustads who are identified by Gharana, women Ustads are identified by places of residence. Most of these places you will see are what we used to call in Bangla, Ganju, places of trade and it is there that they had their kothas. A journey of rediscovery that traces the lineage of their contribution to the Hindustani classical music from the magnificent dancing halls and the splendor of mayfills into the magical world of films. This concept of the song being part of your performance, that you are being the character and acting, I think you have to get into that mode of it, it is a different genre, it is a different concept, it is not realistic as such, you do not break into a song when you are talking to somebody, but you just have to accept it, it is again a part of storytelling, it is part of Hindi films, that is how Hindi films are made. Let us also remember that this was the time when the independence movement was at a feverish pace and needless to say several of the bhaigis became a part of it, financial contributions to political parties, singing and writing songs of freedom, wearing and spinning khadi in the spirit of swadeshi, much was also being done by the bhaigis for the nationalist movement and the ongoing social reforms. Actually the Tawai family brought a lot of intellect to art which was there in Awad, but I think what had happened was after 1857 that whole institution began to get degraded, you know Victorian values set in and I think the kind of patronage they used to get to become artists, that was lost. A tale of stigma and of daring, Indian women on record is a recalling tribute to the fabulous women singers whose lives have been lost to history.