
She held it horizontally and sang a 'kheyal'. She was so little that she could not hold the 'tanpura'. It was her elder sister Dina who first got the break, but on the day of her performance, she developed a sore throat and Runa was asked to stand in.

Runa's carrier as a singer came by accident. She made her first public debut as a singer at the age of six and cut her first disc for a Pakistani film called 'Jugnu' at the age of twelve. Runa started learning classical music at a very early age, and received vigorous training from Ustad Habibiddin Khan. Ustad Qader, later known as Piya Rang, was her teacher.

Her early music training was done when her family lived in Karachi Federal B area in 1960.

Her father was from Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
