India, Aug. 10 -- Imagine this: Four women are seated in a loose crescent, their bows poised, facing a rapt audience. The first note rises from the eldest - a slow, unhurried curve that seems to gather the room into its palm. Before the sound fades, the second catches it, turning it over like a piece of river-worn stone. The third leans in, deepening the colour, and the fourth threads her own voice into the weave.

This is not a relay but a conversation; one mind speaking through four pairs of hands. The ladies are three generations of violinists -- Padma Bhushan Dr N Rajam, her daughter Sangeeta Shankar, and granddaughters Ragini and Nandini Shankar - expressing an inheritance of music.

A violin in the cradle

For Rajam - who pioneered ...