It was the summer of 2002. The famous Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, the largest Indian classical music festival outside the subcontinent, was celebrating its 25th edition. Among the final performances was that of Chennai-based classical vocalist T.M. Krishna. One of the thousands attending was 16-year-old Vikram Raghavan. Like all ‘good South Indian kids’ who grow up overseas, especially in the US, Vikram had been initiated into Carnatic music early. “To be utterly honest, though, back then, I wasn’t really serious about music,” Vikram admits.