The lead guitarist of Indian rock band Parikrama, Sonam Sherpa passed away on Friday. He was 48. Sonam Sherpa suffered a cardiac arrest. The guitarist was in his hometown Kalimpong, West Bengal.

There are a handful of rock bands in India that can proudly claim that they have been around for 30 years. Parikrama is one of them and Sherpa, along with mates Nitin Malik and Subir Malik, have hung around right from the start at the dawn of economic liberalisation in India  where not just foreign goods but even culture flowed in freely and they never really stopped until today.

Sherpa had been a part of Parikrama as its lead guitarist since its inception in 1999. The band recently visited Arunachal Pradesh to shoot a song, Tears of the Wizard. Shot in Mechuka Valley, the song was released in August last year.

The news comes as a shocker for the music fraternity of the country as Sherpa’s work has inspired and left a mark among several musicians.