From May 2006 to May 2007 continues my year long world tour of Trinity of Guitars. In the first lap I went to Saint-Denis de La Réunion, La Reunion Island, Sweden, some cities in France, Brussels and at Bath and Brighton festivals in England. The response was fantastic at La Reunion, Stockholm and at Bath festival. But in the middle of the tour one tuning knob of Gandharvi broke putting me in deep trouble. This July while touring in Ireland too a famous violin maker came to my rescue and repaired one knob -he saved my whole tour.

This time it was so hot in Europe that I suggested many to plan for cross ventilated houses for next summer. Actually there are no fans or coolers in Europe like in India or other tropical countries.

It was so hot this time that we used the shawl for only one day in Norway and for two days in Paris. We were feeling extremely hot as we were decked up in our concert attire and envied the comfort of near bare bodied, bare foot audience who enjoyed in their own free way.

As we landed in Berlin after flying from Norway we discovered that Shubhashish’s Tablas did not come with us in the same flight. It could come in the next flight which meant - next evening! But we had to drive for three hours to our next concert venue and start immediately. The whole day at Berlin was wasted in writing complaints and address of our next destination and in trying to trace our Tablas. Somehow we managed our concerts in Germany with somebody else’s Tabla. But one thing I will never forget is that my concert in the same evening of the World Cup final in Germany, the host country, was packed to the full. After the concert I saw the finals between Italy and France. People were watching the match on huge screens on the streets and enjoying with full beer mugs.
In France I saw the French culture very closely. I learnt a lot about the French wines too. The French, I saw are eager to learn about other cultures, especially their music. I heard earlier that the French not only listened to other’s music but did thorough appreciation too. Many musicians appreciated this aspect of the French. I must say that I had to follow suit as all my shows in France were packed to a full house. Since mingled with the French people for a prolonged period I gradually saw how they appreciated beauty and all things beautiful. They are beautiful and loved to remain beautiful! Rene Lacaille and his family are my long associates in France. I savoured Reunion dishes with them and went to see Saint Nazare beach. I also did a collaboration in one show with them. Being together with them musically was a very special affair for me in this tour.

In France I really liked Titi Robin, Faiz ali Faiz Qwaali group who performed as other artists before or after us at different places.
One of my favourite musicians is Paco de Luciar. Going to play in his country after quite some days was very touching. We were moved by the hospitality and warmth in Cartagena (in southern Spain). The warmth of Spanish flamenco was great just like their music.

Carrying the warmth of endearing memories we headed for Ireland where we stayed at the Guiness Palace. The Guiness family is renowned Beer producer of the world. We played at their royal like ballroom where the ambience gave a new dimension to our music.

From there we packed off to England. We came to Elmhurst’s Dartington College which was inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. This college was developed from the property of Richard the Second’s half brother and his family from the 13th century. This was transformed by Elmhurst with the advice from Rabindranath. Here I taught raga music to 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation south Asian music students and scholars.

I experienced my inner self in so many different countries and cultures. It was truly enriching experience.

Next I came to WOMAD. Nearly 50,000 people were present this year. Some many things were going on at one place. The food court was the biggest I had ever seen. It was amazing to see how they managed the security and also kept the toilets clean for so many people.

We reached WOMAD from Dartington after a 6 hour drive. Next we did a one hour workshop. Within next two hours we did the sound check and show. I did not realize while playing but at the end I saw that nearly 5000 people were listening to my recital.

WOMAD has a great history. WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) is the result of an idea dreamt in 1980 by Peter Gabriel, Thomas Brooman and Bob Hooten, and the first festival was held in 1982.

The central aim of WOMAD is to bring together and celebrate as many forms of music, arts and dance drawn from countries and cultures all over the world.
Life remains unfulfilled if one didn’t perform here. Again I came back to France. We were back to our known city of Paris. The Elam Longo Open Air Festival is completely different from WOMAD. It is small in size but there’s so much warmth and respect. And then there was brilliant illumination and stagecraft. It was an extremely gratifying experience performing there. I like playing in such places where I and my audience get submerged in music unnoticed.
Longo and Bordeaux are famous for their wine. There are beautiful vineyards on both side of the road. Here and there one can see deer’s doing a peek-a-boo in between sun flower and wheat fields. And in the middle of all this our vehicle sped at around 150/160 kilometres per hour. I was feeling highly thrilled driving at such speed when suddenly the TGV, the high speed train in France, whooshed past at an amazing 300 kilometres per hour! It reminded me that-..."you cannot draw a line showing the end...” one has to move on. This going on with development and speed is life.

I had come to Bangkok so many times in transit. Lots of shopping and good times in Bangkok! But I must say a few things at the on set. The India during Lord Buddha’s period still remains in Thailand today. Thailand has beautifully preserved the Buddhist culture with sobriety though encircled by urbanity. But there is least western influence in the minds, attitude and behaviour of people. One has to admire how they have preserved their language and culture. Their hospitality is really superb!

Thailand’s Songkran is India’s Songkranti- which means the beginning of the new calendar year. And both fall on the same day. In India we celebrate Holi with colours in Thailand they play with water. They get out of their homes with huge water barrels attached to their vehicles and play with water all across the city. People use mugs and sprinklers to spray water on passer-by’s, unknown people in cars just for the fun of it. This goes on for three days. There’s also lots of other celebration that goes on in and around town.

Songkran Festival -so this year I played at the festival to mark the occasion. Performers from Brazil, Africa’s Bokina Faso, France, UK, Korea, Japan, USA, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka and Malayasia presented solo items. I was the only one from India to play pure Indian raga and later jammed with other musicians including Thai musicians. Little Thai girls put up beautiful choreography. Beautiful as they were in traditional Thai costume and jewelry their dance steps matched much like our Manipuri dance.

Tasty food stalls were appreciated by all at the concert venue. The King and Queen had honoured all by their presence at the inaugural concert. Next day morning all of us visited the famous beaches of Thailand. Some of us swam while I chose to taste the famous Thai Daab-Chingri (green coconut with shrimps). One could not miss the fantastic Thai massage! Of course we had a whole day for shopping.

This was one show in England where I performed for the people to adjudge my performance exactly the way I visualized all these years.

At WOMEX many musicians, music producers, companies, organizers, writers, journalists, TV channels, web channels, photographers, instrument makers, sellers and so many professionals congregate from all over the world. It is truly a global music milieu! I was selected by ‘7 Samurai’ jury board comprising jurists from different countries after they heard my album “Calcutta Slide Guitar- 3”. Many said our show was the best. Stage, sound and lights were excellently set up. The whole area of the WOMEX was beautifully decorated. There were food stalls, CD stalls, instruments, producer's stalls and so many more. Everything was on a grand scale. It was truly memorable for me. Of course there was another reason. There was a power failure for nearly fifteen minutes in the middle of my show! Calcutta reminded?!

We did not stop even for a split second and so everybody heard us playing acoustic with pin drop silence. It was this spirit of ours they appreciated most.