BHAKTAPUR, Nov 5: The festival of lights, fruits, colors, music and flower — Tihar is here. Tihar is the time of the year when you listen to melodies of traditional musical instruments like madal while singing deusi bhailo. Though modern technology might seem to replace the instrument, nothing can beat the charm of playing madal during Tihar.
Moreover, those who make madal have inspired many and 47-year old Hari Shankar Kulugu from Bhaktapur is one of them. He has become an inspiration to young people who believe there are no employment opportunities in the country.
The madal-makers of Dhading
According to Kulugu, the monthly income of his family is Rs 40,000 to 50,000. There are nine members in Kulugu’s family. Apart from making madals and other percussion instruments, they have a shop near the Nyatapola Temple, Bhaktapur where they sell madals to foreigners willing to buy. “The average income generated from our shop is around Rs 3,000 a day. Sometimes there are no sales whereas sales can shoot up to Rs 7,000 per day at times,” said Kulugu.
His family has survived in this business and he is happy with his work. “I am happy with my work,” he expressed his happiness, “I am handling the entire family from income of this business.” He has two daughters and two sons. All of them are pursuing their education.
His parents make traditional musical instruments of Nau Baja. They make Dhime, Pachima, Nagara, Dholak, Nya Khinn Pona and Kot. According to him Dhime is more expensive than the rest. He informed that the cost of a Dhime is Rs 15,000. He has tried to commercialize the tradition set by his ancestors. He had learned the skill of making instruments from his father and has passed them on to his children.
Kulugu plays all the instruments but Dhime is his favorite. He said, “I can make the instruments and play them as well.” Unavailability of raw materials is one of the major challenges that Kulugu is facing at the moment. To solve his problem he brings raw materials from Dhading and Makwanpur.
