India, April 15 -- 1943-2026

MUMBAI: The passing of Neela Bhagwat, 83, at her Matunga home, after a quiet battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, has left the music fraternity reeling-not merely with grief, but with a deep sense of dislocation. Some departures close a chapter; others, like hers, seem to loosen the very spine of a tradition, leaving behind a silence that hums with memory.

It is a poignant coincidence that the same illness had, just over a year ago, claimed Ustad Zakir Hussain. For Bhagwat too, breath-her lifelong medium-had turned adversary. In her final months, as her partner Amarendra Dhaneshwar recalls, she remained largely homebound, sustained by oxygen and medication, yet inwardly tethered to her music, lis...