Occupation: Manufactures and repairs mridangam
You can sit on this stool and we can talk. This is the room where we make the mridangam. I am in the middle of making one. If you look around, you can find mridangams stacked on shelves, some of them made recently.
It is the Navarathri season, the busiest season for us. The demand for musical instruments peaks with music festivals happening all around. Also, many people find this the auspicious time to start learning an instrument. In fact, we had to work on last Sunday, which is usually a holiday, to complete the order.
The city has been my home for the last nine years. I joined Anjaneya Musicals at Kaithamukku, three years ago.
I hail from Peruvembu in Palakkad district. Yes, you got it right! Peruvembu is famous for manufacturing percussion instruments. I belong to a family that has been into making mridangams for many decades. I learnt it from my father, Lakshman, who in turn picked it up from his father, Velayudhan.
I feel I was born to do this and after completing my Plus Two I didn’t think of anything else to do. You might be wondering why I have come this far to make a living. Actually, there are too many people back home making the instrument. In fact, many youngsters who are in the profession have moved to places across Kerala to make the mridangam. I worked in Bengaluru and Cherthala before coming to the city.
Now let me tell you some basic facts about making a mridangam. The body is made of the wood of jackfruit tree. The wood must be selected with care. Otherwise it gets affected by climatic changes. The mootu or the two mouths of the mridangam are covered with moulded leather. As you know the right side or valamthala is smaller than the left side or the edamthala. We use three layers of leather on the right side and two layers on the left side. While the diameter of the right side can vary between 6 1/4 and 7 1/4 inches, that of the left side falls between 6 3/4 and 7 3/4 inches.
The black patch in the middle, which is known by different names- we call it ‘choru’- is a paste of ferric oxide powder and cooked rice. It is this portion that gives the mridangam its distinct timbre. We use leather straps to fasten the two sides. Usually it takes four days to make a mridangam, of which two days are meant for the paste to dry.
You might wonder whether we should learn to play the instrument. That is not necessary. But we have to know the sruthi, otherwise we can’t be in this profession. Besides making the mridangam, we also repair the instrument. Most are brought here for replacing the black patch.
I am quite comfortable staying here especially because I have my two brothers, Rajeev and Sajith working here with me. Rajeev, who is elder to me, has gone home now. My parents, my brother’s wife, and my wife, Vismaya, reside at Peruvembu. Another attraction about the city is that it has a musical tradition with lot of artistes.
Our working hours is from 9.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Sundays are holidays and we usually go to watch a movie. We stay in a rented house at Thakarapparambu.
I don’t know how long I will be in this profession. I hope to get a government job. Mainly because after a point this job drains you physically. Most of us who make mridangams end up having severe back ache. So I better try for another job before it is too late. That doesn’t mean I am bored of what I do. I would never ever think like that.
(A weekly column on men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
