Q. Tell us about the early days of Parikrama.
A. I was the only one playing in bands, and was in my third year of college. I had four months left before I would have to join the family business of jeep motor spare parts and say goodbye to music for good, so decided to approach the guys, who played the kind of music I listened to which included Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Deep Purple. The band was formed to play covers of classic Rock bands that we worshipped. Nitin Malik and Chintan Kalra were juniors in school; our first guitar player Prashant Bahadur was with me in school and college, the drummer Rahul Malhotra was in the same college too. We found Sonam in 1991, when he came to the university for admission. Everyone was a student. We charged R500 for our first gig.

Saurabh Choudhary, Imran Khan, Nitin Malik (background) and Sonam Sherpa of Parikrama at Independence Rock, Mumbai, in 2010. Pic courtesy/ Akshayraj Uchil