Pandit Ravi Shankar had two daughters, Norah Jones  and Anoushka Shankar. Norah Jones was born out of his brief relationship with Sue Jones, a New York based concert producer. Norah Jones is an Internationally acclaimed Singer and is considered as one of the greatest Female Pop Singers of United States.
In a statement released today, Norah Jones was able to call him “Dad” following the news that he had died Tuesday at age 92: “My Dad’s music touched millions of people. He will be greatly missed by me and music lovers everywhere.”
However, her relationship with Ravi Shankar bore coldness until recent times. In early interviews she had tried to avoid talking about Ravi Shankar.
When Norah  Jones was forging her own musical path as a natural-born singer with reflective, soulful lyrics  the young girl signed to the legendary Blue Note record label wanted to be judged on her own merits, not on those of her famous father.
“Before, I was still working out my own issues with my dad. We only started our relationship when I was 18, even though I saw him when I was little. And also, I’d lived my whole life without having to be known as the daughter of somebody. So I didn’t want to start with music! I didn’t think it was fair to my music to label me as the daughter of somebody – I didn’t think it described me very well and I didn’t think it had anything to do with my music. Maybe I’m genetically more inclined to music – but the music I make is so far removed from Indian classical music. I grew up in Texas!”
She had, then, only known her father “properly” for four years when she first started doing interviews.”We only started our relationship when I was 18, even though I saw him when I was little,” she said.
“Also, relationships are complicated, and relationships within families are complicated when there’s been a k period of estrangement. And why get into that with a perfect stranger? I can’t do justice to both sides of the story unless we write a book about it…”
Plus,Norah  Jones was protective of the feelings of her mother, with whom she remains very close.
“That was actually the main reason I couldn’t really get into it. Because there’s both sides to consider. Then there’s my side, which is completely different from those two.
“But I’m fine with talking about it now because I feel like I don’t have anything to prove any more… People think of me separately from him now, and that’s great. I love my dad and we have a very good relationship now.”
Before she recorded The Fall, Jones visited Shankar in Delhi and spent a month with him and his family. She wrote a couple of songs there, and her dad tried to teach her a Hindi song. “It was fun,” she told me two years ago, “but I don’t know that I would want to record it. I don’t speak Hindi. That music is so sacred in a way. People have gurus and give up their whole lives to study this music, so I’m not gonna just waltz in and start recording it. But it was a nice experience for us, as a father and daughter who have never really played music in that way.”
“I remember when I found out that John Coltrane had come to him once to study….That impressed me at the time, more than the George Harrison thing just because I was such a jazz nerd. But you know it’s all amazing. He’s inspired a lot of musicians,†said Jones.
She and Anoushka also wrote a song together forthe latter’s 2007 album Breathing Under Water. But Jones hasn’t been to India since that last visit, and hopes to go soon – her schedule permitting, and also that of her father.
The statement she and her mother Sue Jones released said, “Although it is a time for sorrow and sadness, it is also a time for all of us to give thanks and to be grateful that we were able to have him as part of our lives.”
Anoushka Shankar, Ravi’s daughter by his second wife Sukanya, recalled the day Norah first reached out to them via phone, a few years before her breakout success with “Come Away With Me.”
“A soft-spoken girl on the other end of the phone asked to speak to Mr. Ravi Shankar,” Anoushka told the Daily Mail.
“When she said who she was I was stunned because by then I had totally given up on the idea that we would ever have any contact with her.”
The two sisters had an easier time of making up for lost time than Norah did with her dad. “”She and I have a beautiful relationship,” Anoushka said 10 years ago. “I finally have the sister I always wanted. She is incredible… It’s wonderful to see someone like her with that kind of substance and integrity getting success.”
At the same time, said the senior Shankar, “Norah was my first daughter and I missed out on eight years of her life so it is wonderful to have her back. (She and Anoushka) have so much in common it is mind-boggling, really—in their looks, in their behavior, in the way they are so quick-witted. They are so fantastic together.”
Jones’ primary reason for not discussing Shankar, even after the “period of estrangement” was over, was sensitivity to her mother’s feelings, she told the Independent this year. “That was actually the main reason I couldn’t really get into it. Because there’s both sides to consider. Then there’s my side, which is completely different from those two.”