Post Java Jazz, MoonArra's next few important gigs were at the Fete De La Musique at Alliance Francaise on world music day June 21, Kyra the next day and Bengaluru Habba in december.  Fete de La Musique is really important to us as Alliance Francaise is one of the few organisations which promote world music with a religious fervour and zeal.  I also got a chance to test out my 'Oud' which I'd picked up in Egypt.  Our set is becoming better as we play more gigs and as Prakash keeps remarking that we must play the same set over and over again for songs to get registered and for us to become fluent.  I couldn't agree with him more.  At Kyra the next day we were amazed to see a near full house and it was a Monday.  Earlier on during the day, I got a call from Chris Avinash asking if I would like to call off the concert as there were only a couple of bookings.  I replied that we would play with or without an audience.  This was a truly an amazing show as we had plenty of time for our sound check and were relaxed when it was show time.  A lot of our friends and relatives along with their families showed up and it was quite heartening to see that they enjoyed our performance.

I love December and that 'biting chill' which Bengaluru is all famous for.  The Bengaluru Habba jazz segment was being organised in an open air amphi theatre at the UB City and 11 bands performed over 3 days before a capacity audience turnout.  I had to juggle between organizing this fest and performing with MoonArra!  Our performance before a home crowd had them literally on their feet - didn't know our songs could get them to do this!  This was Madhuri's rendition of Susheela Raman's Love Trap and Leela.  Karthik played on his Cajun (Pro: kahoon).  We ended up doing three encores! Kenny put up his 'metal' fingers at the end and Prakash smiled and I knew that this was another performance to remember!  Notwithstanding this one fan who couldn't control himself when Prakash soloed!