Since the past two months, I have been observing two blind beggars on the railway footover bridge/s in Goregaon. Both of them play musical instruments.
The first one plays the bulbul tarang. I don't know where he got it from...probably it was a rejected piece from someone's house or from his own house, or may be its an age old hierloom from his family back home - I absolutely don't know. What I know for sure is that he has no clue of what he is doing to it / with it! He produces sound, not music. The bulbul tarang is thoroughly abused (like the beggar) - its buttons are eroded, strings are lost, case is broken and the feather through which he strikes the strings has lost shape. He strikes each of the remaining buttons and strings continuously multiple times trying hard to make a tune! Whenever I pass by this man, I try to identify what raag might be just possible from the remaining buttons on his instrument! It's rather funny - but what fascinates me is what he can still do with the instrument possibly! But he continuously keeps on playing it, playing it, playing it...
On the other hand, the other blind man plays the dholak. His dholak is intact - definitely seems someone gifted him. Neat. It has a fairly good naad. He always tries and sings with the random beats he produces! Although all songs (kirtans) he sings seem familiar, he just alters their rhythms to suit his silly musical beats! He hits the dholak with a certain amount of uninterest. Probably he just heard John Cage and was absolutely inspired by him.
Both these men compel me to wonder if this is how the first people who engaged with these instruments in the history of civilization behaved! They interact with the instrument as the nomads in the film Gods must be Crazy - as if somebody flying in the air dropped these magnificent musical instruments in their lap which they fiddle with non-visually (by virtue of them being blind) to produce random sound. What aesthetic of sound do the blind understand or create? Do they like to just move hands on it? Do they like to engage with the instrument purely because it allows them that tactile sensation? I am sure one can beg without the formality of playing an instrument.
Further, I kept relating it to the idea of a 'practice'. If practice is about perfecting something, then how are these people not able to even strike one harmonious chord yet in their engagement? Or is our sense of harmony and aesthetic of sound structured by the classical rules of music? I keep trying to like the 'blind' music they create, but I have yet not been able to come to terms with it.
Finally, I am fascinate with this interesting condition of 'blind sound' and where these blind men go with their timeless exploration of the instruments - playing for the world that remains their audience (whom neither they see, who neither listen them back)!
(I haven't taken their photographs thinking that it will be too sadist to take photographs of blind men)
The first one plays the bulbul tarang. I don't know where he got it from...probably it was a rejected piece from someone's house or from his own house, or may be its an age old hierloom from his family back home - I absolutely don't know. What I know for sure is that he has no clue of what he is doing to it / with it! He produces sound, not music. The bulbul tarang is thoroughly abused (like the beggar) - its buttons are eroded, strings are lost, case is broken and the feather through which he strikes the strings has lost shape. He strikes each of the remaining buttons and strings continuously multiple times trying hard to make a tune! Whenever I pass by this man, I try to identify what raag might be just possible from the remaining buttons on his instrument! It's rather funny - but what fascinates me is what he can still do with the instrument possibly! But he continuously keeps on playing it, playing it, playing it...
On the other hand, the other blind man plays the dholak. His dholak is intact - definitely seems someone gifted him. Neat. It has a fairly good naad. He always tries and sings with the random beats he produces! Although all songs (kirtans) he sings seem familiar, he just alters their rhythms to suit his silly musical beats! He hits the dholak with a certain amount of uninterest. Probably he just heard John Cage and was absolutely inspired by him.
Both these men compel me to wonder if this is how the first people who engaged with these instruments in the history of civilization behaved! They interact with the instrument as the nomads in the film Gods must be Crazy - as if somebody flying in the air dropped these magnificent musical instruments in their lap which they fiddle with non-visually (by virtue of them being blind) to produce random sound. What aesthetic of sound do the blind understand or create? Do they like to just move hands on it? Do they like to engage with the instrument purely because it allows them that tactile sensation? I am sure one can beg without the formality of playing an instrument.
Further, I kept relating it to the idea of a 'practice'. If practice is about perfecting something, then how are these people not able to even strike one harmonious chord yet in their engagement? Or is our sense of harmony and aesthetic of sound structured by the classical rules of music? I keep trying to like the 'blind' music they create, but I have yet not been able to come to terms with it.
Finally, I am fascinate with this interesting condition of 'blind sound' and where these blind men go with their timeless exploration of the instruments - playing for the world that remains their audience (whom neither they see, who neither listen them back)!
(I haven't taken their photographs thinking that it will be too sadist to take photographs of blind men)