Susmit and Asheem left their jobs to be in the band full-time, and kept at it even after they had kids to support. Rahul and Amit did not have salaried jobs either. All four kept afloat by taking on various musical assignments – odd jobs composing music for serials, ads and documentaries.

New Year’s Day 1997. The SAHMAT concert at Mandi House, Delhi. After waiting 7 hours to get on stage, Indian Ocean played an inspired concert that had the crowd rising to its feet, roaring for more. Quite fortuitously, the band noticed a DAT recorder, bought a tape and recorded the concert. True to their unfailing lack of vision, no music company wanted to release a live album of an Indian band, so a label called Independent Music was formed to release this. Desert Rain was a landmark album for its time and today, almost a decade later, still continues to sell (Much to the band’s surprise and pleasure, in 2006, it was no. 2 on the iTunes UK world music charts!).

Meanwhile, the media started getting interested in the album and this ‘new’ band. Radio, TV and press coverage increased. From relative obscurity and a modest group of enthusiastic fans, the band began to be known around the country. First, the gigs began to fall into place – Delhi, of course, but also Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Mumbai. Money began to trickle in. More importantly, new material became more honed, and the playing tightened with every show.

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