The Germany-born multi-instrumentalist owes his musical inclination to his family. The music has always been a passion with the family, and he has played flute since he was five. "During my school days, I knew only one thing, that I didn't want to go to school," recollects Mr Joshua. He says, "Though none of my family members was a professional musician, the culture of music was very much there in our family and the sound of flute attracted me more than anything else."

In the late 70s, at the young age of 18, he left home and high school in Germany and came to India on spiritual quest. "Coming to India, I joined the hippie tribe to find out what I really wanted," Mr Joshu says. Then he came in touch with the Osho cult where he found peace of mind and got his new name, `Prem'.

But it was the Eastern music that moved Mr Joshua more. "I was only 16 when I heard Indian music for the first time on a record, titled Concert For Bangladesh, a live recording of George Harrison and many other famous Rock names from that time," says Mr Joshua. "On one side of the record was Ravi Shankar's sitar. I had never heard anything like that before. This was beyond my musical grasp and experience. Despite my unfamiliarity with it, there was immense beauty in it that I felt I knew it very well like a distant remembrance."

One of his first purchases in India was to a sitar. Mr Joshua started learning sitar from Ustad Usman Khan and soon became involved with the traditional Oriental folk music. "I loved the roots of this music and felt an immediate connection that I missed so much in Central European folk," he says.

"When I reached India I had a sensation of knowing it; it felt like coming home! Along with the feeling of familiarity there seemed to be an inexplicable sense of ease in this country of mysteries, contradictions, colors and smells. I would spent half the year in India, and the rest half abroad," says Mr Joshua.

But he made sure that he never lost touch with the contemporary western music. In fact, all his concerts and musical experiments revolve around fusing the Oriental meditative tunes with Occidental music. Be it any of Mr Johsua's old albums like Tale of Dancing River or Sky Kisses Earth or be it his forthcoming album Dancing Mother, you will get a blend of the spiritual quietness and the rhythm of joy in life.