I played the violin for Semmangudi for 40 years! He appreciated my very first concert with him. That day he sang for five hours. He couldn't believe how I, a teenager played with him for so long.

I used to listen to the radio all the time, that too only music. I still remember listening to the shehnai of Bismilla Khan and nadaswaram of Rajaratnam Pillai and getting fascinated by both. And I wanted somehow to play the violin like they did the shehnai and nadaswaram. I tried, tried and tried, and finally I could play like them.

The violin is not an easy instrument but I managed to master it.

What do you attribute your success to, in playing the violin? Is it hard work, passion for music or bhakti?

I would say bhakti. My family is a family of musicians. Not only my father but my grandfather also was a great musician. So, music is looked at with bhakti in my family and I also inherited that bhakti. I see God in front of me when I play music. It is only because of bhakti that I have been playing all these years.

Is music like meditation for you?

Music is not like meditation, it is meditation for me. When I am playing the violin, I don't think of anything else; no sleep, no food, nothing. I only think of what I should play and what I should create. Music is the only thought in my mind.

Was music like tapasya for you even from young days?

Yes, even when I was a young boy, music was like tapasya to me. If you say I have achieved something in music, it is only because of this tapasya.

(His wife said, "After the stroke, he had lost his speech and vision. Now, with God's grace, and because of his music, he has come back to life. When he was down, we played music for him 24 hours a day. Now, like a beginner, he practises music trying to bring back all that he could not avail of in the last two years.)

Lalgudi continued -- "Music is a medicine given by God, and it is this medicine that saved me. I would have died if not for music."