The two main features both focus on foreign scenes. One offers a profile of Kola Bharati, a foundation promoting Bharatanatyam and Indian culture in general in Montreal, Canada (23-30). The other offers an interesting account of the inroads being made by Carnatic music in Germany (31-35). An article by Hans Neuhoff, a German student of Indian music, on the performance of Mani Krishnaswami and his party was sent to Sruti for exclusive publication and we decided it would fit into the feature. 

The special features are complemented by an article— the first of a series— which provides an historical perspective of Music in China (37-38). Then the issue brings you back home to focus on the career and achievements of the late Chikka Rama Rao, a vocalist who brought glory to his native Mysore State (39-40). The News & Notes section opens with a two-track report on a recent ABHAI-conducted dance festival and seminar. It is complemented elsewhere in the issue by V A.K. Ranga Rao's resume of the Arguments that swirled through the seminar (41-43).

The reports on the Khajuraho Dance Festival and Twilight Rhythms, a festival put on boards by a five-star hotel in Delhi, raise important issues. Besides two other reports— one on the newly established Research & Documentation Centre of the Sruti Foundation— there is a thoughtful memo on the Music Academy written by the Chief (15-17), a comment on The Depths of Cultural Materialism by K.S. Srinivasan of New Delhi (18) and another instalment of T. Sankaran's memoirs (19-20).

Altogether, the N & N section offers a sweep of information on music and dance events which you'll find in no other publication and interpretive comments and opinions placing the events and developments in perspective.

The cover photo by Avinash Pasricha shows a sculpture of Siva in Adi tandava, in the Mukteswara temple (10th century) in Bhubaneswar. It is one of the many photographs by Avinash Pasricha included in the book on Odissi reviewed in this issue.