[2][3] He was interested in sports and listened to Indian classical music but did not intend to become a musician and trained as a geologist.

[3] During a visit to Kolkata he discovered the Hawaiian lap slide guitar and convinced his father to let him learn it by promising to only play classical music.

[3] Kabra then lived in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, learnt the instrument by imitating records, and later studied under Ali Akbar Khan.

[4] Kabra became the first Indian musician to play raga on the guitar, performed publicly, and recorded the successful album Call of the Valley (1967) with bansuri player Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor player Shivkumar Sharma.

[6] Kabra recorded solo albums and concentrated on teaching since the 1990s but continued to perform.