We just had (on 28 May 2005) our second concert in Zurich as part of the Notes of Hope series. Pt. Shivkumar Sharma and his son Rahul were the artist this time (last time it was Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia). It was a great concert – first half was mostly classical rendition – during the second half they played more folk tunes. I could hear lots of music from the film Silsilay coming through, and Lamhe too sometimes. It was also amazing to see father and son peforming together – I wonder if there was a small element of competition between them! Ticket sales was rather low as our president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was visiting Switzerland then and a bonquet was being hosted in his honour that day (More about his speech and my thoughts on it sometime later.) Many of us were invited – and most chose to go – so we lost a large number of Indian crowd. But nevertheless there were over 200 people for the concert – which is by Swiss standards very much a crowd. I found both Pt. Shivkumar and Rahul very interesting personalities and not hassle prone as some of the other famous artists are. Though they had visited Switzerland numerous times before, it was the first time they

were experiencing 35 °C in Switzerland. They had a tough time (as most of us too) as most hotels are not air-conditioned here. But they took it in their stride and we had fun with them. Will post some photos as soon as I get them from all those who were taking photos.