I am an amateur violinist and student of Carnatic Music, a centuries-old classical music tradition in India. For the curious, there is a helpful 30-page primer.

My initial exposure was through my grandmother, who had grown up in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom which was a hotbed of the classical arts. She had learnt a diverse set of compositions both from the Trinity and the post-Trinity eras ¹. I was a passive listener then and absorbed the beauty of the music, but didn’t start formal lessons until my college years.

At IIT Madras, I had the good fortune of learning the violin under Smt. Sowmyashree Chandramouli, a student of Sangeetha Kalanidhi A Kanyakumari.