India, March 30 -- Ancient civilisations carry an unparalleled bequest, and a daunting challenge. The bequest is the priceless heritage and culture to which they are heir to from time immemorial. The challenge is how to preserve it in a manner that enriches the present without distorting the past. It is the dilemma between what to preserve, and what to borrow, what to keep and what to jettison, what to cherish and what to interrogate, so that the right synthesis can be retained between the original and the new.

Recently, at the prestigious Sir Shankar Lal Memorial Festival in New Delhi, sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan made two comments that set me thinking. One, he said that classical concerts should be ticketed; free performances are...