it takes about an hours drive from athens to reach the village of kapandriti the car leaves the highway somewhat brusquely and enters a dirt road lined with wild growth on both sides from a distance comes the first surprise strains of the shenai and the bansuri filter through the thicket within minutes we arrive at a clearing here facing a hill and surrounded by fruit trees and a japanese garden stands a dainty little house at the foot of the hill is an open air amphitheatre a man dressed in a dark blue kurta and trousers of the same colour and sporting a pony tail soon emerges from the house he appears to be in his forties his first word of greetings is namaste from then onwards and for the next hourandahalf all talk is about the intimate bonds between india and greece especially in the realm of music the mans name is alexandros karsiotis he lives and breathes india every nook and cranny of the house is packed with statues of ganesha pictures of shiva laxmi and saraswati puppets from rajasthan and handicrafts from various indian states the bedcovers table cloths mats and durrees are indian indian musical instruments are neatly arranged against a wall in the bedroom books on india dominate the bookshelves boxes and bottles containing indian spices and condiments grace the shelves in the kitchen alexandros tells us that he gave up his medical studies to study indian classical music he developed an interest in it when he was a student in the united states for several years he spent the winter months in benaras learning how to play the sitar he loathed the city at first but gradually came to cherish it as his second home inspired by the jugalbandi he set about pursuing what is now his sole mission in life to fuse indias musical traditions with the classical folk traditions of greece in order to elevate the status of the latter following the liberation of greece from turkish rule in 1832 alexandros explains the greek state and the establishment chose to deemphasise the countrys oriental links folk music served to amuse revellers during village feasts or to entertain tourists it is western classical music that received official patronage as if it were the only natural evolution of greek culture bach beethoven and mozart the argument ran are what plato socrates and aristotle would have listened to all else was primitive alexandros believed otherwise in the summer of 99 he brought musicians from india and greece to play together in his amphitheatre they struck an immediate rapport the reasons he explains were not far to seek both kinds of music derive their strengths from oral traditions both emphasise improvisation both regard the human voice to be the basis of musical creation both make extensive use of microtones and of the musical frequencies between semitones the indian techniques of the meend and the gamak have their counterparts in greek techniques there are other similarities