Ram Narayan (1927-2024) was my first sarangi teacher and focused mainly on technique. Several other teachers followed. Abdul Majid Khan (c.1888-1977), another Bombay sarangi player who was a close friend and disciple of the legendary Bundu Khan, lovingly taught me the beauty of the old instrumental jod-style alap in 1971, and six years later Hanuman Prasad Misra (1914-1999) introduced me to the thumri style of Benares (Varanasi).

However, my main music teacher was not a sarangi player but the renowned vocalist and scholar Dilip Chandra Vedi (1901-1992).

He opened to me a refined world of music and musical thought that belongs now to the past. I cherish the memory of sitting in his class at the Bharatiya Kala Kendra, New Delhi, in 1974-1975 and 1977-1978, often together with my friend Wim van der Meer.

After he retired at the age of about 80, he taught me at his home. Those were some of the happiest moments in my life.

Fortunately, I also had the opportunity to study for short, intensive periods with the eminent music scholars Dr. Prem Lata Sharma (1927-1998) in Varanasi and Professor Shahab Sarmadee (1914-1994) in Aligarh. They shared with me their vast knowledge of Sanskrit and Indo-Persian sources and patiently answered my questions.

Between 1971 and 1983 I spent more than five years studying and researching music in India – and conducting botanical research at Delhi University as well. In fact, the renowned botanist B.M. (Brij Mohan) Johri supervised my research and edited the first scientific article I wrote together with Ferry Bouman which was published in Phytomorphology in 1974.