But it is courage that most plainly marks out the career Uppalapu Srinivas, the swift-fingered mandolin artist who passed away in Chennai on Friday, after a bout of illness, at the age of 45.

Mandolin Srinivas. I knew the name much before I knew what a mandolin was or had come across any of the man’s works. And it was almost always accompanied by “prodigy” or “genius”. I am ...