We move forward because you let us, our appreciation remains in every step we take.
 For a band that’s been around for as long a time as we have, an incredible number of incredibly nice people have contributed to our being, our lives, and the success of the band. And naturally, we want to thank all of them here, at our website. So here goes.
First off, to all our fans all over the world, but specially in India, for making this such a great and rewarding ride.
Early days: A. K. Sen (Susmit’s dad) suggested the name Indian Ocean at a brainstorming session at their home sometime in 1990. In those days, the band used to practice at C-207 Anandlok, and not just that, would eat, sleep over and be provided free booze by the inhabitants, Siddharth Ghosh (Munna), Vijay Bonnel, and Sridhar. Thanks to Audica studio for the first demo. And to Indrajeet Dutta, Anirban Roy and Shaleen Sharma, who played on this demo, and to R. C. Joshi and Sawan Dutta, who were part of the band in those early days.
The first album: The entire Durgapal family gave us their space, endless cups of chai and food, and dealt cheerfully with complaints from the neighbours in the winter of 1992, as the band would rehearse into the early hours. HMV released this album and we recorded at their studios in Dumdum, Calcutta. Manas Chakravarty designed the album cover. Navin Shiromani did all the tech stuff for the cover. A large number of journalists gave us the only publicity we got for this album, so thank you Bishakha De Sarkar, Paranjoy Guhathakurta, Kajal Basu, Ravi Ranjan and so many others.
Mohit Satyanand and Sanjoy Roy, and the whole team at Teamwork Films, specially Dilip Shankar and Yamini Tiwari, started us off on the route of actually thinking about management and planning shows and all that, and gave us wonderful support for years and years. We toured the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia thanks to Teamwork…Vandana Verma and Dhruv Jagasia being outstanding in this latter phase, not to mention great party animals and fun to hang out with. Koji Sato set up our Japanese tour and remains a great friend.
 During 1993-1996 we practiced at M-6 GKII, where Chittaroopa Palit (Silvy) and the Ghosh family (Sejomami, Meku, Tiya and Diya) gave us huge amounts of love and support that we can never repay. We became a part of the family and ran free all over the house, and made the living room our own.
Our show at the SAHMAT concert at Mandi House, New Delhi on Jan 1 1997 (Thanks Rajan, Shabnam, Vivan, Sohail etc) became DESERT RAIN. Naresh Bhatia formed Independent Music just to release this album, and showed faith in the band at a time we sorely needed it. Vikram Mishra did the sound at the show, and K J Singh remastered the album at his studio. Amit Pasricha took all the photographs for this album and its publicity, Vinu Pasricha designed the cover and Mr Tilmann Waldraff and the staff of Max Mueller Bhavan gave us tremendous support for the release and have continued to do so over the years.
We moved into 16/330 Khajoor Road, Karol Bagh in the summer of 1997, thanks to the generosity of Gurpreet, Orijit and the Sidhus. It’s one incredible place, and we’ve some great experiences practising and playing and partying there. Rupa and Dipu have become our pets and even the guys selling cars outside are now our fans! KB continues to inspire us, and we hope to remain here for many years to come.
KANDISA was recorded under the Times Music banner at Western Outdoor studios in Mumbai. Heartfelt thanks to everybody at Times Music (specially Pramod Shankar) and at Western Outdoor. K J Singh was our producer for the album and did a great job.
JHINI was recorded in three phases over seven months in Kosmic Music studios at Varadeipalyam, AP, in a beautiful studio in the middle of fields and hills, where jackals would call at night! P V Manoj was the sound engineer, and a calmer, more laid back and quietly competent man is hard to find…truly a gem of a man. Thanks to him, Jhini was awarded the best produced album by AV Max in 2004.
BLACK FRIDAY, our first major full-length feature film, came about thanks to the support and confidence placed in us by Anurag Kashyap (director) and Arindam Mitra (producer). Our old friend KJ Singh came back as music producer and we loved the energy of the Spectral Harmony Studio in Bombay.
 Over the years we’ve received great support from the media, and we would like to give special thanks to Radhika Roy and everybody at NDTV, and Bhaskar Bhattacharya and the gang at BITV. A band’s stage sound becomes possible only due to the sound guys, so thanks, Sunny Thukral and his boys and Navneet Wadhwa and the boys at Audio Track and the Best Brothers in Ahmedabad. Over the years, Shivdas, Vikram Mishra and Samir Kriplani have done a sterling job at the mixer, and Nikhil Dutt has done wonders with the lights.
Sanjeev Sharma has given lyrics for three songs on Kandisa, and another three on Jhini. He seems to feel the soul of the band. Indira Kilam wrote lyrics in Kashmiri for Kaun, and Amita Baviskar wrote Bhilali lyrics for Nam Myo Ho in Jhini. We would like to thank Gorakh Pande (Hille le) and Vahru Sonavane (Boll Weevil) for their wonderful lyrics. Sant Kabir’s utter simplicity combined with great depth made composing Jhini a pleasure.
For our website itself, we want to thank Anita Roy for writing lots of the content. The original version was designed by Gullu Sen, Rahul Jauhari and Raja Biswas of Rediffusion DY&R, Delhi and actually implemented by Siddharth, Debu, Bani and Shylesh of IndiaSky. This version has been designed and executed by Ankur Pathak and Reena Khemani, who took time off from their busy schedule, and put in lots of effort and love.
Rahul wants to thank his parents, Prof. H. Y. Mohan Ram and Dr. Manasi Ram for their support and acceptance of his non-standard career path in all its avatars. To Amita Baviskar for love, fun, friendship and support for all of the last twenty-four years. To everybody in the Narmada Bachao Andolan for changing his life and world-view for ever.
Amit would also like to thank his parents, Inder Kilam and Indra Kilam for all their support in letting him choose his unconventional career path. To Rachica for all the love and for putting up with him for all these years, and to his brother Sumit for being his sternest critic. He also thanks all the other musicians he has played with over the years from the different bands in Delhi, namely Gravy Train, Euphoria and Parikrama, but above all he thanks God for everything.
Susmit thanks his parents, Ajit Kumar Sen and Namita Sen for giving him a great childhood that has helped him explore uncharted paths in life. Namrata for all the love and acceptance of an unconventional life-style. To his brother Amit and sister Mimi for being of immense support at various times. Finally his children, Tan and Atia who have changed his life by the sheer joy they have brought him. |
