As a child in a family of musical legends, my earliest and most vivid memories are of my father and guru Chitravina Narasimhan grooming my elder brother Ravikiran, younger sister Kiranavali, cousin Ganesh and me, and Ravikiran practising to sing in -- not three or four -- but six speeds! Music was in our lives every minute of every day, so much so that it was our first language -- we learnt to sing before we learnt to talk! Role reversal My father was an expert at making music child’s play, quite literally! The grille gate of our house, which conveniently had 36 vertical bars, became our lesson in melakarta ragas; a little stream of water that flowed as my father gardened became our introduction to srotovaaha yati; a line of ants became pipilika yati and so on. Even when we were children, he had dedicated his life to teaching and grooming us. That meant that my mother was the breadwinner, working as she did in a bank, and my grandmother took care of us at home. My mo...