We recently celebrated Amma’s (Indu Shedde’s) 95th birthday. I am in utter gratitude that she is among us, and in good health so far, even at this age. She can see (more or less), hear, walk, and she sings every day. She plays Hindustani classical music on her Casio keyboard daily. I had gifted her a Casio last year, and the moment she took the cover off, she started playing Raag Kedar on it, as if she’d been doing that all her life. Her big concern is: which bhajan will she sing at the temple tomorrow? She used to sing on All India Radio and has given public concerts, and has a wide repertoire of Hindustani classical music, including raga-based bhajans. Still, she feels she can’t sing God the same old bhajans every day. So she asks anyone with an android phone, to play her Anup Jalota on YouTube, so that she can learn new bhajans. I just love her attitude: always looking to up her game.

She adores radio, I call it her permanent boyfriend. Her favourite is All India Radio’s Marathi Asmita Vahini on 558 AM, with superb, high-quality discussions and Hindustani classical music, whose standards neither FM radio nor TV will hardly ever match.