Questions were shot by everyone from a senior rasika who wanted to know whether veena could be played sitting on the chair (by those who suffered from knee pain) to a young ten year old wanting advice on veena lessons.
Here is what the artiste said . .

On her early gurus:
My father Aswathama, a film music director, who exposed me to music by singing for me and my mother, Kamala Aswathama, an AIR artiste and veena teacher with inputs later from guru T.M.Thiagarajan.

Why she chose veena:
My karma! I have played it in many previous janmas and it’s my destiny that I should be born into a family surrounded by Veenas.

Popularising Veena through film music:
Playing film music on Veena is to show that a Veena can handle anything under the sun. I don’t make designs to attract the crowd or popularise the Veena because I believe that Veena is a Vedic instrument likened to the human spinal cord whose correct playing technique can help to attain moksha.
For me, music is to reach God and spirituality is the undercurrent of my playing.

About practice and manodharma:
Practise like a devil and play like an angel. Body should ache with practice. Only at that point it is an acceptable level of practice.
Music is wild. Manodharma must come out fully, unplugged without any inhibition. No school of thought must come in the way of expression because expression of yourself is expression of God and God is not in any particular school of thought.

Rendering of Grahabedam by only a few artistes like her:
There is a belief that practice of Grahabedam will bring about untoward events in that person’s life because this practice involves suddenly changing from one scale to another and each scale has a different and specific influence on the surrounding. But I’m not scared.

Difference between Kalpana and Kalpita Sangitham:
Veena was my toy when I was a child. I used to play with the notes and reproduce the songs listened to on Vividh Bharathi. I don’t know music theory.

Maintenance of Veena:
Veena dhandi likened to our spinal cord is the most important and we have to be very careful while transporting it. Everyday, I pray to Raja Mathangi, deity for the Veena and do pooja, aarathi and offer neivedyam to my Veena because after 120 hours of playing with the breath control technique, your prana goes into the kodam and it is full of life. So, it becomes an extension of oneself.

Advice to young learners:
Don’t get influenced by TV. Veena playing is not for competitive purposes. I don’t understand this scene of breaking down into tears if you don’t get a prize. The Trinity didn’t do it to receive awards or perform kutcheris.