My Violin, Amar Akbar Anthony and the Music of India's Unity

I often ask my friends: What can you make if i were to give you some wood, metal strips and hair from a horse’s tail? Most of them stare at me, speechless. Then they say: “Give up!” I reply, “Violin”.

My marriage to my violin goes back some sixty years, when my dad invested in what at that time was big money: a hundred rupees—to buy me a mini-violin costing ninety rupees and pay ten rupees monthly for weekly violin tuition. That decision launched a long love affair of discipline and devotion, trials and triumphs, learning and teaching. But, above all, rather than master my violin, she has mastered me.