Women in tune

It’s the job of these seven women to apply the inevitable shahi (ingredient used to ascertain the tone) and occasionally squeeze in the cylindrical wooden blocks (Ghatta) between the straps that are used to bind the upper and bottom ring,facilitating the adjustment of the tension by moving them up and down. The women try to get the peripheral tuning range depending on the percussion after which it is tuned to perfection by another group of workers on percussions like Dholak,Dolki,Tabla,Naal,Pakhawaj (a single drum instrument) and a host of other small percussion instruments.

Years of experience added with the fact that most of them are related to each other makes their job more like a family ritual.

For Lalbaug resident Pramila Jadhav,the affair with the percussions began 24 years ago. Her 25 year old daughter Deepa has followed in her footsteps and now sits besides her drying the drum skin with a black rock which they call Krishna or Shalimar,prior to applying the shahi,beating around the drum skin and carefully checking to get a buffer tone.

“I started doing this when she (Deepa) was one year old,” says Pramila fondly,adding that her sister Rekha too works with them.

For the rest of the group,Swati Dinarkar and Suvarna Kajrolkar (Sisters),their sister-in-law Sanjvani and neighbour Priya Bhoir,it’s a daily routine of arriving at Lalbaug from Kalyan for this job which they’ve kept for five years now.

One person averages three instruments per day as different instruments takes different amount of time to finish the process,says Swati,elegantly rubbing the rock over the large black spot on the head known as syahi which means “ink”.

According to them it takes 30 to 60 minutes to mix the shahi and over three hours to work on the percussions and little over two hours on the smaller percussions.

Although not trained professionals to understand tones and tunings,the women after years of experience have got a rough idea about the tones which were taught to them by their employers.

“We get a faint idea about the tones whether they are 2 or 3 while applying the shahi. The other group which finally tunes the instrument tells us when to stop,” says Swati.

“We find some fun in doing this job. Anyway we are not familiar with any other job,” she adds with a glee.

The most experienced of the lot,Pramila,whose husband also work with the other group in the nearby shop,says that this has become a habit now after all these years.

Their employer Mehul Chauhan,who runs the 50 years old musical instruments shop called Damodardas Govardhandas with his father Shantilal,sits with the other group of men who brings out the final product which is sold here as well as other parts of Maharashtra and Konkan region.

Mehul claims that famous artists like Pakhawaj player Apegaokar,Bhavani Shankar,Suresh Wadkar and Kishori Amonkar,are among their customers.