Madhu was born in to an ardent music loving family. His maternal grandmother Rushyendramani was a famous south Indian cine/theater artist, trained and accomplished as a singer and dancer. His maternal grandfather Rama Krishna Rao was a music director for theater and films. His paternal grandfather Subba Rao directed plays. His dad was an accomplished harmonium player, composer and director of songs, theater, and radio "jingles". He is grateful to his family and teachers that always supported his music/practice.
Madhu started learning sitar at the age of eleven. First he learnt from Shri Devi Prasad who himself was a student of Shri Bashir Ahmed Khan (a disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan). Then he learnt from late Shri Sangameshwar Gudur, a Kirana Gharana vocalist and sitarist. Till he left India at the age of 22 he learnt from Pandit Atmaram Sharma who learnt from his grandfather Poojya Nadanand Bapuji (one of his teachers being Ustad Inayat Khan). Madhu's father was mentoring him all through with his knowledge some of which was acquired from S. Rajeshwar Rao, a South Indian music director. Late shri M.P. Bala Krishna, a tabla accompanyist and All India Radio staff member taught him compositions from Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan and how to play Sitar with Tabla. His grandmother would sing carnatic compositions (such as Vatapi) to be emulated on the sitar.
At the age of 12 Madhu was transfixed by hearing Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra's slide guitar on an All India Radio national program. Within a couple of years he started playing the slide guitar that he handcrafted by looking at Kabra's LP album cover pictures and visits to the hardware store.
Madhu won several competitions playing sitar including All India Radio Instrumental for the South Zone, three consecutive gold medals for sitar instrumental held by the Navaya Nataka Samithi. Prior to settling in the USA he played Sitar and Guitar concerts in South India and for All India Radio.
Although Sitar and slide guitar have been his mainstays, Madhu continued to play several instruments since his childhood. Each instrument exposed different facets of expression to him that would not be easy to see on a single instrument. The instruments he played at a decent skill level at one time or another for fusion and or in private include Sarod, Esraj, santoor, Piano, Saraswati Vina, Surbahar, Rudra Vina, Guitar, Flute, Harmonium, Violin, and Gu Zheng (a chinese precursor to Koto). He has also tried the silver flute, accordion, and saxophone. On the percussive side he played Tabla, Pakhawaj, Ghatam, Dholak, and Djembe for devotional and fusion music.
Although he does not sing actively he feels voice, the instrument supremo uno can touch every one when the cry is from the heart.
Madhu's music is inspired from his life experiences - falling in love, heart breaks, parenthood, emotions, prayer, silent meditation retreats, dreams, blessings of gurus/elders, and grace. Living in the west since the early 80s has exposed him to western classical, jazz, pop, rock, fusion, new age, and ethnic music. These influences are evident in his music even when playing Indian classical music. His scientifc/engineering background has also helped him analyze and correct his technique which allows him modes of expression that were not possible before.
I hope to expose myself through music. I hope that music that flows through me and brings peace and comfort to me and the listener. I hope the music will provide me a glimpse of your heart and you a glimpse of mine. I hope the music will integrate North and South Indian music, and at a global level integrate eastern and western music in ways not heard before. I hope the music will provide a meme to inspire future generations to preserve and to improve all that there is to life and living no matter how it seems to the contrary. I hope to make my teachers and family proud and happy that their efforts and wishes have not gone in vain. I hope and pray that I have a few chances to share my music.
Madhu was one of the first few slide guitar players playing Indian classical music after Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra. Madhu customized a guitar at age of fourteen by looking at gramophone record cover pictures of Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra. Since the 80s, Madhu had several design innovations both for the sitar and guitar for which he built several prototypes in the 90s. In 2011 Madhu finally was able to successfully build customized sitars and slide guitars that can produce sounds never heard before with these instruments. This section will be updated once the paperwork is finished with the Indian patent office.
Even when Madhu was a shy tentative little boy he was always sure of one thing - that he could write. Some of his middle and high school essays touched his class teachers so much that they would spend a whole class describing the essay and detailing how they felt. He wrote assortments of essays and or plays through his teens based on social issues and teen angst. His writing took a new turn in the first few years of his life in the US. He would wake witnessing fully forming poems in his head. Subsequently he experienced this in wakeful state as well (Lionel Ritchie mentioned this phenomenon happening to him in a news paper interview in the 80s). Madhu has a collection of over 200 poems, short stories since the "phenomenon". Some of these poems were collected in to a short story over a period of 15 years and is titled, "Songs of the Great White Swan, Excerpts from the diaries of a tree". This book was published in 2010. This book is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, Kahlil Gibran's Prophet, and Richard Bach's Jonathon Livingston Seagull. The poetic style in this short story captures Indian poetic delivery in English perhaps one of the first times ever. There are other works in the pipeline.
Madhu feels that the inner is a dual of the outer. Understanding one helps understand the other, much like in electrical circuits. He learnt from different traditions much in a similar fashion to how he learnt from playing different musical instruments. He feels the very fact of existence is reason enough to not fear. He had a near death experience in the late 80s that changed him for the better as a person. That coupled with insights from various silent retreats, every day life, music, and parenthood keep him growing. From the experiments and experiences he became aware of new music, meridians, healing energies/techniques, esoteric arts such as astrology and palm reading.
He is grateful to his uncle Shri Krishna Rao for insisting and initiating him during his teens in to a third eye meditation technique from Swami Vethathiri. He also tried Transcendental Meditation technique for a few months in undergraduate school. The technique he practiced the most since the 80s is Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin. He has played for and sought blessings from several spiritual masters such as Osho, Swami Satchitananda, Amritanandamayi, Karunamayi Amma, Shree Ma. He has also learnt from Hindu, Sufi, Christian, Bahai, Tibetan, and Zen traditions. New age based writings/movements such as "Course in Miracles", writings of Seth and Emmanuel also contributed to his perspectives. Richard Feynman deserves being a scientist deserves a special mention for providing valuable insights into the working of the mind. The Krishnamurtis (J& UG) and various Zen master writings were extremely helpful as well.
Madhu believes and has seen that dreams have a lot to offer for self inprovement. He has experimented with lucid dreaming ever since he was a teen ager. He has experimented with dreams in some ways similar to the Native American Shaman tradition. He has even researched the effect of planetary positions on his dreams.
Madhu is adept at Western and Vedic astrology. He also mixes Uranian and Arabic astrology. He is interested in astrology from a psychology perspective rather than a predictive perspective. With his scientific background he doesn't quite fit with traditional astrologers. At the same time he doesn't fit with scientists who seem biasedly blind to the effects of planets on humans. He uses sidereal astrology. He doesn't give as much weight to rectification and Caesarian birth times. The astrology reading of Madhu's chart actually indicates that he can be an astrologer. He got interested in palmistry from getting a palm reading when he was teen ager. Astrology and palmistry can be combined together to look at possibilities to consider for growth.