Our western (yes, western) music teachers, our friends, my children and I are the first in the world to achieve several new milestones in carnatic music.

We wrote complete kirtanas in western notation, on multiple staves, and played these on Bb clarinets, Eb and Bb saxophones, western flutes, piano accordions and keyboards, western orchestra style where various instruments join and leave at predetermined times.

We added harmony elements successfully, winning first prizes at National and Pacific level competitions.

Playing music off staff notation, we successfully accompanied traditionally trained carnatic music vocalists and instrumentalists.

With help from many people, we are working on synthesizing beautiful gamakams and carnatic music on computers.

We are also using Artificial Intelligence techniques to automate the synthesis of Manodharma Sangeetham.

Because we lived in a small city in Australia for eight years, our children did not have the oportunity to learn Indian classical music. They learnt western music.

My age will not be a secret when I say that I have studied physics, engineering, computing, vibrations, noise and music (western and Indian) and that I teach computing at tertiary level.

I am fortunate enough to enjoy almost any kind of music. I used to study for exams while listening to carnatic music on All India Radio - Thiruchirappalli and Madras.