In this special podcast on Begum Akhtar, The Quint’s Fabeha Syed caught up with writer Yatinder Mishra who has compiled his research on classical singer Begum Akhtar in a book called ‘Akhtari’. He also explains that how tawaifs or courtesans played a huge part in teaching mannerisms to children of their elite neighborhood, how the stigma of being a tawaif was washed away when she married an Oxford educated lawyer, and how a compromise in her marriage made her very sick.

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