Very Cool! The drone was what got me as well. The first three albums I bought were The Monkees' second album, Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" , and Ravi Shankar's "India's Master Musician", all within about 8 months' time. I heard some Indian singers and realized after a while that the melodic aspect of sitar emulates Hindustani vocal expression, putting that concept and that of the drone together made everything click to some extent. Sitar has been a challange as almost no guitar technique translates and I have a learning disability that makes it nearly impossible for me to study with a teacher to any degree. So I continue in a way that makes sense to me and it works, more or less.
BTW I have added jeeva, the little pieces of thread under the drone strings, so they ring more like a tanpura. Huge difference in the character of the drone!
How long have you played sitar?