Actually in Russian, there is no such pronuntiation for the letter "H". Thats why instead of Himalaya it became "GIMALAYA". And that was the word famous in Saratov through which peole knew us in the farover city called Saratov of Russia in the mid of 90` s.
SUGAN played guitar, UTSAB on bass, KAPIL on vocals, TIKA on keyboards, RAJESH on guitar PRAJWAL on drums and PRADEEPTA (me) on guitars. It was a band called "GIMALAYA".
It all started when I and Sugan were known to each other there and we played guitar in my room. Then we thought of Jamming in the small room of University. We got the backstage room of the big hall of the University. It was cosy but the equiptments were superb to us though they were old. The two LesPaul model guitars, One German bass guitar, a big Russian mixer, a big Piano, an Amplifier, Synthesizer and Angels drum set and some Flanzer and WahWahs. Later on we added with some Distortions and Overdrive gadgets. I still remember the day when it was over -30c and Sugan and I was raoming in the city of Saratov to buy those gadgets. Later on he was on bed for 15days due to cold.
Those were the days when all of us had strong feeling to perform best in the stages. We practiced hard before every stage and experimented and took out the best ideas to make the stages best. Thus people in Saratov, I hope still remembers the song called 'Musu Musu' which was very popular. We never thought of doing Nepali songs before but as we were the foreigners, the audience seemed want to listen our songs instead of Heavy Metal and we were not performing in the Rock clubs instead we were always let stand on the stages on Public festivals and our guests use to be from children to old. We performed Black Sabbath and Nirvana, Guns and Metallica but we felt people there enjoying with us when performing CCR songs (have you ever seen the rain, Proud Mary).
It comtinued for a year and after a year Sugan and me left for Moscow for further studies. That was actually the end of GIMALAYA. After two years I went back to Saratov again for 2 week in Christmas and the teacher of the University organized a programme where we again gathered and performed once again. Only SUGAN was not there.
That evening was heart touching which all of the people will never forget.
From Left 1st row: Eugene, zhenya, Anton, Prajwal, Kapil
2nd row: sasha, Sugan, Pradeepta and Rajesh
