It was in 1959. I was 29 then. That meant I did sadhakam as an accompanying musician for 17 years before I became a solo player.

How different is playing the violin solo, from playing as an accompanying instrument?

When you are accompanying a musician, he is the raja and you are only a mantri but at a solo concert, you are the raja. You then have all the freedom to experiment, but not when you are an accompanying musician. Because of this freedom, I enjoyed solo kacheris (concerts) more.

At a concert, do you see people in front of you, or are you in a different world where only you and the music exist?

I don't see anyone in front of me. Whenever I have my violin in my hand, I am transported to a world where only music exists. I see and hear only music even if there are thousands of people in front of me.

I surrender myself to God and music and then it becomes a divine journey for me. I do not know how time passes. I have played 5 to 6 hours without a break. Once I played 6 hours continuously at Mysore.

You created your first creation, a thillanain vasantha ragam when you were 26. Did it come on its own, did and you always want to be a composer?

Actually composing new music was a passion for everyone in my family; my father, grandfather and great grandfather before him. So, I myself might have inherited the urge to compose. It is not that I thought about creating a keerthana; it came on its own. I feel I have not composed the keerthana; it came from within. It may be that God makes me create the keerthana. When I look back and I listen to some of my own keerthanas, I am puzzled. I do not know how I composed them.

Do you look back quite often at the journey you have undertaken?

I do look back quite often. Only if you look back, you see the shakti that guides you through.

You are described as a living legend...

Whatever I have done is not because of my ability but because of God's blessings and His guidance. Do I have a hand in all this?

Today, it is as if you are synonymous with violin...

If that is so, it is only because of God's kindness, and nothing else.