The long trip from NathuLa had not dimmed the energy of the trio from Indian Ocean — Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam, and Himanshu Joshi — as they took stage late on a cold first evening of the Sikkim Arts and Literature Festival. Yet, the news of their 40 year long journey being documented in a new upcoming title warmed the evening for fans. 

“I have known this man since he was a boy,” Ram quipped as host, and one-time their management, Sanjoy K Roy, took the stage with them. To this, Joshi remarked, “I am the same age as that boy.” From being told by music companies to play a “little Bollywood”, to performing in an Edinburgh pub, the anecdotes flowed freely.  “It was 13 people and 300 sheep,” the vocalist quipped. “That was the whole village,” came the riposte from Roy. Another humorous anecdote came from Kilam who recalled how their hit, Kandisa, came from a tattered note in Ram’s ‘ancient’ purse. “I had heard the song from a friend who taught chemistry in a school in Kashmir. So, in the evenings, he’d play this Aramaic prayer from back home in Kerala,” revealed Ram.