Diabetes, hypertension and a slight hardness of hearing aside, Ravi Shankar, the world's most famous sitar player, is a remarkably fit 89 years old and he's mentally as sharp as someone half his age.
At the Ravi Shankar Centre in New Delhi, where he winters to escape the chill of the California home he shares with his second wife, Sukanya, the walls are lined with photographs of him with the famous people he has worked with during a very long career.
He still practises for an hour a day and can remain fresh for a performance after three days on the road. Currently, Shankar is busy preparing for the concert he holds annually at the centre on February 25 to mark former Beatle George Harrison's birthday.
'The only drawback of age is the effect on the body,' he says. 'Mentally, I haven't changed at all. I can compose a symphony in three days. My mind is buzzing with ideas. But I haven't got the same movement in my body. I can't jump around as I used to. That's very frustrating.'
Seated on a sofa next to Sukanya, a broad-beamed woman who is 35 years younger, Shankar looks even smaller and frailer in comparison. But younger friends say the sitar master puts them to shame with his energy, taking long flights, giving interviews, teaching and composing. Indeed, Shankar is working with British conductor David Murphy of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who has just arrived in New Delhi to develop one of Shankar's latest compositions into a full symphony.
'He is always beating out tunes with his fingers,' says Sukanya. 'Even when he had double pneumonia three years ago and the doctors had said it was 50-50, he used to tap out melodies on his hospital bed.'