Press on regardless, and sitarist Ustad Hameed Khan, grandson of sitar maestro Ustad Rahimat Khan, offers his family's move to Dharwad as something of an explanation. "My grandfather," he recounts, "who was at the court of the Bhavnagar king, once came to perform during the Mysore Dasara. On his way back, one of his admirers requested him to perform at Dharwad. So smitten was he by the place that he never went back. He just wrote a letter to his family, asking them to shift lock, stock and barrel." Why did he do so, you ask. "One main reason was the erudition of the listeners. The pleasant weather, the greenery and the serenity of the place perhaps came as a bonus. Dharwad is a workshop for musicians; the riyaz that happens here stands you in good stead all your life."
Ramakanth Joshi, Bhimsen's cousin and the publisher of his biography, says that besides his musical training, what shaped Bhimsen and other musical legends was also the intellectual climate of the region. They grew up in the presence of great writers and thinkers. Bhimsen, for instance, was close to poet laureate D.R. Bendre, and rendered his poems most soulfully. He also acted in plays written by Kerur Vasudevacharya and Bendre Laxman Rao. "Bhimsen was also an actor," says Ramakanth. "There were musicals (Bagyashri and Parivartana) written specially for him, and in one production of Nala-Damayanti, he not only played the role of Nala, but also sang the 40 songs in it for all the characters."