Lifting me, soothing me, touching my soul

You took me where very few people have gone before.

With each lilting note, my heart became fuller

Till it was not enough to hold everything that I could hear.

Through my happy times and the melancholic ones

The angry spats and the contemplative moods,

Your music nurtured a love of the Divine.

Reaching deep within my being and leaving me open to experiences

That moment in Time where everything stood still and there was nothing between me and the Music.

Today, that magic stopped.

News of your untimely demise has left me in a state of shock

I sit here, reading tributes to the wonder that you wove, both with your character and your melody.

I will never be able to hear you in person again

Never introduce you to my daughter at a concert

Never watch your smile light up a stage . . .

The grief wells up and sticks in my chest, like a heavy, ungainly paperweight.

The question, ‘Why?’ is futile and yet I ask it every few minutes.

In all this, the gratitude is paramount, that I can listen to countless hours of your mesmerising talent

Preserved for generations to come.

And in all this, I hope in one small corner of my heart

That I can garner a fraction of the love from the ones I know

When it is time for me to bid adieu.

So long and Thank you for the Music.

Sri Mandolin U. Srinivas

(1969- 2014)