My Guru, Sri. O.S. Thiagarajan (OST), passed away on December 31st. When I started lessons with him, I was a young child, completely unaware of (and uninterested in) his musical skills or pedigree. The first piece he taught was Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s MahA GaNapate in NaTanArAyaNi – he was kind and…
Part 1 is here. A few years later came the next assignment – to Makeni – in Sierra Leone. My first exposure to school, my mother would braid my hair, pack me curd rice in an Aladdin flask that went into a pretty metal case. When I came back, it…