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A short biography of Indubala by Dr. Jyoti Prakash Guha
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Indubala's mother was Rajabala, who along with sister Matibala and brother
Tinkary worked in Motilal Bose's The Great Bengal Circus, also known as Bose's
Circus or Professor Bose's Circus. Harimati was the eldest sister of Rajabala and
had a different life. Rajabala performed mainly as a trapeze artiste and got
married to Motilal Bose at a temple in Ujjain, India. At the time he was then in his
forties while Rajabala was still a teenager. The marriage was never accepted as
legal by Motilal's family. Motilal Bose's first wife was Mrs. Annadamohini Devi.
Indubala was born in Novenber, 1899 at Amritsar, where the circus party had
gone for performance. Indu was born premature and Dr. Bidhumukhi Basu was
taken to Amritsar from Calcutta to attend to Rajabala. Such was the affection and
concern of the husband for his young wife. Motilal's interest in Rajabala dwindled
later, supposedly because Rajabala showed no interest in going back to the
circus after Indu's birth and soon she was left to fend for herself. She came to
Calcutta with her daughter and was given shelter by a Jiban Krishna Ghosh, who
remained loyal to her till his death and also played a major role in establishing
Indubala in her life as a performer. Once in Calcutta, Rajabala trained herself as
a singer and Indubala's first training in music was from her mother. The initial
plan was to train Indu as a nurse and she was admitted as a trainee in a hospital
in the Pataldanga locality of Calcutta. Indu did not take fancy in the job and ran
away from the hospital, much to the disappointment of her mother, who never
wanted her only daughter to be forced into a life of indignity. After this incident
Indubala's musical training started. Although her father ignored wife Rajabala
completely, he remained fond of his daughter and kept in touch with her and
often invited her to his ancestral home where he lived during his brief visits to
Calcutta and sent her a monthly pocket money of Rupees twenty till his death.
Indubala's first performance was at a gathering of distinguished guests where her
mother was the chief entertainer. Each one of the guests appreciated Indu's
singing and thus began her formal training from Gouri Shankar Mishraji. Indu was
only about twelve then. This also marked the entry of Indubala into the red light
world. Amongst her trainers were Kali Prasad Mishra, Elaahi Bux and Miss
Gauhar Jaan. Apart from music, Miss Gauhar Jaan, credited as Prima Donna of
India, Indu also learned etiquette from the elder artiste and developed a close
friendship with her. This association provided Indu with valuable musical
knowledge and experience. In later years she took training from Girin
Chakraborty, Kamal Dasgupta, Subal Dasgupta, Jamiruddin Khan and Kazi
Nazrul Islam. In time she came to be one of the major exponents of Nazrul songs
and her songs along with those of Miss Angurbala and Kamala Jharia are still
referred to for authenticity of lyrics and tunes of Nazrul songs. In 1916, Indubala
recorded her first songs. She was brought into the record circle by Bhagabati
Charan Bhattacharya and Mr. Manindra Nath Ghosh, alias Mantababu, himself a
gramophone singer of repute. The first songs published as record were Asha
Phuraye Gelo, Sindhu Khambaj and Aar Mukhey Boley Ki Hobey, Kedara. The
record number was P 4306. In the beginning she did not take any money from
the Gramophone Company and as such was credited in the records as Miss
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