this year two carnatic musicians have been conferred with the prestigious chevalier award while one of them is vocalist aruna sairam the other is flautist shashank subramanyam in an interview with us the child prodigyturnedmaestro talks to us about what the honour means to him why it is important to be recognised at the right time the resistance he faced during his early years from the music fraternity and the challenges that young musicians face today excerptsevery honour is an important one for artistesits a rare honour considering that only a handful of musicians from india have been conferred this title every honour is an important one especially when it comes from the government i always feel that honours should come an artistes way at the right time there are two ways to honour an artiste at the fag end of their life or when they need it the most i subscribe to the latter because it helps the artistes career gives them an impetus to continue with what they are doing and reassures them that they are following the right path it also adds to a sense of responsibility and gives purpose thats why you should welcome every honour that comes your way in fact despite my experience of 40 years many sabhas in chennai have not honoured me yet with an award but the government of tamil nadu gave me the kalaimamani 22 years ago the all india radio made me a grade a artiste when i was a teenager and i was the youngest recipient of the senior puraskar of the sangeet natak akademi theres always a challenge when it comes to age versus award i know that ive been recommended officially for the padma award many times but i hear that its always fallen through because of my age honours should be given to deserving artistes irrespective of their ageindian music has a big place among the frenchas a country france has always given importance to art if i remember correctly they dedicate 1 per cent of their gdp towards art historically indian music has had a big place among french music lovers for the past 30 years ive had the great fortune of playing a lot in france and working with french musicians it began with a tour of mine in the mid1990s when i played 26 concerts across france musicians used to attend these concerts and we then went on to work together ive had the fortune of playing at their embassies and in pondicherry radio france and the french tv channel have featured my concerts i frequently present concerts at theatre de la ville and at popular music festivals there one thing in the west including france is that they value every art in france you can find a great collection of european musicians african singers middleeastern singers and folk singers some of the greatest african singers have settled in paris and instrumental music has acted as a bridge to connect many countriesinstrumental