INDIAN DRUMS PART-II

A Journey With the Knowing of Devotional Musical Instruments

Prevalent Indian Drums-Structure and composition

Leather instruments are mainly called as ‘Anabadha’ or ‘Abadha’ playing instruments.
In India there are several types of instruments.The significant names among them are Pakhawaj,Tabla,Khol,Dhol,Nakkara,Mridangam,Dvil,Sudha Maddalam,Chenda,Urumi,Pambai,Udukku,Tumbakanari,Huduk,Tilima etc.

The descriptions are as follows:-(Leaving out Tabla and Pakhawaj)

Khol:-
The other name of ‘Khol’ is ‘Mridangam’ but it should be confused with the ‘North Indian ancient Mridangam’ or ‘Pakhwaj’.The whole body of ‘Khol’ is made with burnt clay. The middle portion is higher and has two slanting faces on either side.The two face are made of leather and the middle of each face has a black portion called ‘Gab’.The right face(maxm. size-2/3 inches) is smaller as compared to the left face. The specialty of ‘Khol’ is there is no need of adjusting ‘sur’ or scale as in the case of tabla. ‘Khol’ is usually used with ‘Kirtans’, Devotional songs and ‘Kirtananga Rabindra Sangeet’ .It is also used with Manipuri dances.


Dhol:-
The body of a Dhol is made of wood and the faces are of leather. Normally a ‘Dhol’ is 18’’ to 20’’ inches in length and 12’’ in breadth. The two sides are fitted with strong ‘Rojju’ which are given through small round rings. The rings are used to adjust the scale of the instrument. They are played with free hands or sometimes with the help of sticks. They are mostly used to accompany folk songs.


Nakkara: -
‘Nakkara’ is one the most significant ancient musical instruments. ‘Bheri’ or ‘Dundubi’ can be considered just as different types of ‘Nakkara’. Usually ‘Nakkara’ is made of Bronze or Brass and its shape is much like the ‘Bayan’ of a tabla. The face is made of leather and is tightly fitted by ‘Rojju’. Its height is approximately 2’1/2 feet to 3 feet. ‘Nakkara’ is played with the help of sticks but with the ‘Sanai’ of North India ‘Nakkara’ is played with hand only.


Mridangam:-
The North Indian ‘Pakhawaj’ is called as ‘Mridangam’ but it has certain dissimilarities with the ‘Mridangam’ of South India. The size of a ‘Mridangam’ is less than that of a ‘pakhawaj’ and whereas the left face of a ‘Pakhawaj’ is played with open palm ,in case of ‘Mridangam’ it is played with fingers like that of a ‘Bayan’ of a Tabla. The length of a ‘Mridangam’ is approximately 1’1/2 to 2 feet. It is usually played with heavy classical music and songs of North India.


Tabhil: -
The shape of a ‘Tabhil’ is much like that of a ‘Dhol’ Its right face is played with fingers while left face with strong wooden stick. This instrument is used with classical musical instruments of North India.

Suddha Maddalam:-
It’s a North India musical instrument and resembles much like that of a ‘Mridangam’ but much bigger in size than ‘Mridangam’ and its ‘gab’ is also much thicker and larger.It has a much heavier sound wave than ‘Mridangam’. This instrument is indispensable for the Kathakali dance of Kerela.

Chenda: -
‘Chenda’ is a type of ‘Dhol’ with length 2 feet and breadth 1 foot. It is played with the help of two sticks in two hands. It is also used with Kathakali dance of Kerela. It is also used with the folk dances of Northern and southern India.

Urum:-
It is also like ‘dhol’ in structure and the two faces are made of leather.It is played with the help of a 1’1/2 inches long curved stick.

Pambai:-
It has been made by uniting two 1 foot long ‘Dhols’ together. The upper part is made of brass and the lower part is made of wood and both faces are of leather. It is played with hand and stick. It is usually used with folk dances of the Northern India.


Udukku:-

It is about one foot long with a thin middle part and shaped like that of a ‘Dugdugi’. It is either made of wood or mud. It is held in left hand and played with right hand. It has limited use in some folk songs of Tamil Nadu.



Tumbakanari:-

It is the Kashmiri ‘Dholak’. It is shaped like a water pot. The lower part is made of leather. It is help below the left arm and played with the right hand. It is a very popular instrument of Kashmir.

Hudukku:-

It is like a ‘Dumru’ but much larger in size. Its both faces are made of leather and are held together by strong rope. It is suspended with a rope from the left shoulder and played with the right hand. It is popular in the ‘Gharwal’ AREAS.



Timila:-

It is also a type of dholak. It is suspended with a rope from the left shoulder and the upper part is played with both hands. It is used in devotional songs of temples of Kerela.

by Sonnet Mondal.

Lucia!

On the 13th December every year Sweden turns into an ocean of lights for the celebration of Lucia. The traditional way of celebrating this annual event is to dress in a white dressing gown and carry burning candles while singing, often there is a choir performing or school classes and the celebration is mostly held in churchs.

Lucia originally comes from Saint Lucy, but is also known as Saint Lucia, (283 – 304) who was a Christian Martyr. Her name comes from lux, lucis "light", and she is the patron saint of those who are blind. Lucy, or Lucia consecrated her virginity to God, refused to marry, and had her dowry distributed to the poor. Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards took out her eyes with a fork. In medieval accounts, Saint Lucy's eyes are gouged out prior to her execution. In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a plate that she is holding.

Sometimes the story behind this celebration is forgotten and vanish behind the happy celebrations, which is a shame since Saint Lucy was and is saint to keep in mind and look up to.

Over&Out

Sara

Gira Bombadil en Latino América

Vemos con mucho agrado y satisfacción que nuestra actual gira en Latinoamérica esta sobrepasando las metas que nos habíamos propuesto, pues la aceptación que hemos obtenido en la parte oriental de El Salvador ha sido enormemente placentera.

Después de tres entrevistas televisivas y cuatro radiofónicas y una entrevista con la Casa de la Cultura, serán muchos los jóvenes que se acercaran a Bombadil Publishing y allí estaremos para darles las mejores atenciones en la cual desarrollaremos conjuntamente con estos jóvenes escritores; escribiendo acorde a nuestra filosofía e ideología, la comunicación de joven a joven, legado para futuras generaciones.

Maggy Jacinto and Melvin Gonzalez in El Salvadorian TV

Nosotras representantes de Bombadil Publishing Maggy Jacinto y Margarita Alfaro Bulle, estamos trabajando arduamente con nuestros mentores en Latino América para darles seguimiento a todos los jóvenes escritores que se están acercando a Bombadil Publishing tanto en El Salvador y toda Latino América y estamos seguras que pronto daremos a luz los resultados a través de los libros editados.

Pero lo que más nos ha sorprendido a sido el inicio literario de 23 jovencitos de la ciudad de Ahuachapán, la cual se ubica en la zona occidental de El Salvador, en edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 17 años, quienes conjuntamente con nuestros mentores Guillermo Antonio Galicia y Marco Antonio Lima, están desarrollando 23 distintos libros y como parte de nuestra ideología será un legado literario de joven a joven… y también de los adultos que así lo deseen, entre estos 23 temas podemos mencionar : leyendas, historias, cuentos cortos, ficción, en fin temas actuales que llevan mensajes de amor y esperanza para obtener un mundo mejor, un mundo Bombadil.
Desde aquí deseamos exhortar a todos los jóvenes con ambiciones literarias a acercarse a Bombadil y formar parte de nuestros sueños y hacer realidad un mundo diferente.

DE JOVEN A JOVEN

Written by: Maggy Jacinto

"here comes the sun"

In Sweden the autumn is now in full bloom, the trees are turning deep red and orange, the air is clear and the knitting season has finally begun!

...on a good day, if autumn in Sweden would always be like it is today, autumn defenitely would be my favourite season! Today the sky is blue, sun is shining and the air smells newborn, it´s a perfect day to go for a long walk and enjoy life. Unfortunately this is not always the case when it comes to Swedish fall I´m afraid. Most of the time it´s raining, raining and raining, and the wind blows right through you not taking in consideration how much clothes you are wearing.

But not today, today the Swedish autumn is smiling and letting us enjoy it´s best sides, so i do my best to appreciate it! Too often I spend my time complaining about how bad the weather is, or how crap my car is or anything really, that is annoying me. Thing is, I sort of realized that one shall not forget to appreciate, so I have decided to appreciate the wonderful weather today and remeber this beutiful day and keep that memory close so it can keep me warm on rainy days when the world seems to have turned it´s back on me.

Just like I keep in mind that beutiful red rose that Christof had put on my kitchen table when I came home and was so tired that I barely had any energy left, I keep that in mind those days when I think things are too hard and that warm memory will brighten up my mind.

I will start to appreciate life a bit more, so should we all.

over&out

Philosophical Sara

Pass it on!

Last week we all could read about Alex´s struggle with getting rid of bad habits, I got really inspired by Alex´s text and decided to start getting rid of some old habits myself!

Many times we do not reflect about the things we say or do to the people around us, sometimes we will make someone upset without realizing it or the other way around; we will inspire make someone happy without actually realizing how. But often it is the small things that matters, Alex blog text last week about his morning runs got me thinking "maybe I should start doing something about myself too?". I have always been a very active person and always been on the run somewhere; football, Taekwondo, MMA, Dancing, Theatre practice, horseback riding, since I was a young girl I have always been physically active! The last few years I have for some reason not been so bothered about it and slowly forgotten how well it makes me feel to work out in some sort of way. But now I have got the will power and the inspiration to do it and that is why I will have the worst ache ever in my entire body tomorrow, but that is tomorrow, today I will just enjoy the fact that I have taken a step in right direction!

I think that is how life works in general, we all need a small push in the right direction to find back to our path again, whether the person pushing us are aware of it or not, but remember to always pass it on! If we all start to try taking care of ourselves and our surrounding I reckon we will get a happier place to live in.

Over &Out
Philosophical Sara

Inspirational meetings and making new friends.

Last week I got really inspired, more inspired than I have felt in a long time. Because last week on Thursday night I met up with one of those friends who are more a friend of a friend, although I can´t remember whose friend he was to begin with. I think we played in the same amateurs football team last summer, maybe that´s were where I first met him, he who gave me waves and waves of inspiration.

I am a hard nut to crack at times, especially when it comes to writing and to feel inspired, I don´t really think inspiration can be forced, although it´s no use just to sit around and wait for it to come and knock your door. Very carefully it need to be pushed and pulled at the same time, and for me who is a hard nut to crack the periods filled with nothing but inspiration seems to be quite irregular and nowadays quite rare even… And I have seriously started to consider if my inspiration has gone off to Greece in order to sunbath ridiculously much, or perhaps skiing in the Austrian alps. Who knows? It´s been missing, and I have surely missed it.

Back to the point; last week I met up with this friend of a friend, but now he is not a friend of a friend no more, now he is "just" a friend =). He writes lyrics and music for his band "Holmes", very, very talented, and we have been saying for quite a while that we should try to do something experimental and creative together. Or rather I have been saying. So at last we did and it all turned out something like this: I have been trying to interpret, unravel and rewrite some of his lyrics, in order to turn them into poems with my way of writing. Then he played his songs that I had rewritten on his guitar. And it all turned out to be pretty fabulous! And because of this energy boost I´ve got from this creative meeting I now have seem to found my inspiration! Didn´t take much; couple of cups of coffee, a new friend and his guitar. That´s the magic recipe. Full stop.

To summarize it all: Get out there and make some new friends, share your thoughts with someone, dare to show yourself, put your heart on your sleeve for a while, you might like it. It might even inspire you, or someone else, who knows?

Over&OutSara

I am back!

After four weeks holiday I sort of had forgot my regular duties and commitments, which lead to me forgettng to blog last Monday. I do apologise for this rather fatal mistake, but here I am, back with more energy than ever!...Except for today. My energy levels are not as high as they should be after a weekends rest, well saying that, my head is working harder than ever. But my body is not, therefore I am working from bed today. Believe it or not. And no, I have not moved my bed into the office, but I am working from home (Trollhättan) today. The reason for my soar feet and exhausted legs might be that me and some friends went to the Swedish amusement park Liseberg yesterday, lots of fun, but still so exhausting! As a child I could run back and forth in that place for hours, not remebering to eat or caring about what the time was. Energy must have got lost on the way. Somewhere from 12-22 years old I have seemed to been a victime of energy loss. Very peculiar.

Well, anyway I am back at work and it feels like I never been away. The Bombadil dog Pixie looked just the same, John is still pulling his same old jokes and the coffee tastes the same. Good to be back.

A lot of things are happening at the moment in the Bombadil HQ, one thing is that I will take over some work from Mariannes and start being her assitant more or less. Obviosly I will still also be a mentor like before and still handeling my own projects and take care of our website. But now also do some more administrive work. Which I am very happy to do, since I like new challenges and learning new things. The wisedome of today therefore is: Challenge yourself and gain experience. Hell yeah!

over&out
/sara

I have stepped sideways from the International Office at Bombadil and into a role that didn't exist even a few months ago; that of "Creative Something-or-other" Because the position is so new that we're still waiting for the paint to dry on it, I don't have a title yet. So, following the example of a friend of mine who works for a major corporation in London as a statistician and, following a disagreement with Personnel, signs her emails "Chief Number-Cruncher," I shall be known as "The Oracle of Creativity" until our glorious leader Marianne notices and assigns me a slightly more sensible title.

I'm sure that you're all sick to death of hearing about Niklas's moon-mine shindig on Monday, so I shall cover it quickly. If you are up to speed with current events, you will know that I had special respnsibility for the carpark. This assignment was given on the basis that having driven a vehicular wreck from London to halfway down Africa (see It'll Be Fine, available on Amazon.com and all good bookshops) and therefore I knew about cars. So I set about clearing acres of shrubs, rocks, scrap metal and railway sleepers (with invaluable help from Mattias) in anticipation of Niklas's estimate of anything between 500 and 1000 cars that would be arriving. In reality, Swedes like bicycles and buses and most of them managed to arrive without the aid of a private motor vehicle. Of those who did arrive by car, half of them parked in some poor chap's front garden opposite the entrance to the moon-mine and the other half set about very politely ignoring my signs, marking tape and spray painted lines and parked wherever they pleased, in a particularly Scandinavian display of disdain for authority. This suited me just fine as it absolved me from all responsibility when something went wrong. As it happened, nothing did go wrong.

On the day, I had special responsibility for collecting the horse from the stable a couple of miles away (apparently I'm the only one with the correct licence to be able to tow the horse trailer behind the Bombadil bus). The horse was to be in charge of entertaining the children. So having first freed the handbrake on the trailer with the aid of a man with a big hammer and a lump of wood, we bundled the horse in and chucked it out again under the trees at the back of the mine. Apparently the horse was a bit miffed at this treatment and spent a while digging a hole in the ground, before going absolutely mad. Or maybe it had been watching too many westerns at the stable. Or perhaps it was just attempting to emulate its masters and wanted to mince around on two legs for a bit. Whatever the reason was, it was scaring the children (small and large alike) so we shoved it back into the trailer and returned it to the stables whereupon it recommenced its game of poker with the cat. Probably.

When we got back, all the fuses had blown and the inside of the mine building was as dark as a brown cow's insides. A bit of gaffer tape and chewing gum later and Mattias, the saviour of Bombadil Publishing, had the lights working again. I suppose my own personal claim to fame is now meeting (well, being in the same room as) Maria Aldrin, who is a relative of Buzz Aldrin. The last time I spoke to Niklas on the subject, he informed me that Maria had not volunteered to divulge exactly how close to the great man she was and Niklas, for his part, had politely neglected to ask. At any rate, it beats my previous best of walking into (quite literally) Trinny and Suzannah on Hammersmith Grove.

My kayak is coming on quite nicely, mainly thanks to Steinar's expertise.



Steinar is the one who actually looks like a kayak builder...



...I'm the one with the slightly Boy George shirt.



I'm aiming to get it into the water before it freezes over. (The kayak, not the shirt.)

/John

A new Bombadilian is always welcome!

We at Bombadil Publishing welcome our new mentor and representing us in the Central-American area, Margarita Alfaro Bulle. Margarita has a degree in psychology and she’s working in her country El Salvador as well. She is a very talented writer with experience in magazines and local newspapers, etc. and best of all, she shares our philosophy, to build communicate between young writers and to help them with the development of their books, their feelings and their wishes.



Mrs. Margarita Alfaro Bulle.

Margarita has been coordinating Bombadil Publishing's tour in El Salvador this summer, she did some excellent work that we are very proud of. This summer Bombadil will supply the very first two books in Spanish, our metor in Peru, Maggy Jacinto, has had several intensive weeks with these two books. The first one named “31 Cuentos Cortos” writen by the young and talented writer Mario Chavez Jovel, who is living in Calgary, Canada. The second one named “La Dama de negro y otros cuentos” writen by the young and talented Rogger Avendaño, who is living in the city of Tacna, Peru. Bombadil is very excited to meet these two young writers and put into their very own hands their finished books, to present them with their crowning work, a magnificent work provided by the Bombadil feelings, the feeling which is growing and growing.

Melvin González

Heat and thunderstorms

Hello all of you out there!

Well today here at Bombadil there has been some difference in the weather. I'm right now sitting in a very hot office room, almost like a sauna. Outside it has been changing weather, everything from amazing sunshine, to thunderstorm and rain :-)):-)). But it´s better this way than having constantly bad weather. I really love sunshine and warmth. And the sky can really be amazing at this time, with all the different cloud shapes and colours. Just look at the picture John took at a another time when it was thunderstorm, it was early in the spring this year. It´s just amazing.


It was at this jetty I took a swim yesterday and some other days.

Today one of our authors came for a visit. It was John Lomborg who has written the book "Leos Rike". It will be released sometime later his year. "Our" John took the opportunity to take pictures for the cover to John L's book and even filmed a bit for some use. I don´t know exactly for what but something it will be :-)):-)).

And today we also sent another book for printing, that will also released later. Well it will be later because a lot of peoples are going for their summer vacations. So have patience out there if you are waiting, it will come :-)):-)).

Ohh it´s just so lovely these sunny days. I´m so happy in this weather even when it´s warm like these past days. And as I have mentioned before I´m also having some excellent/perfect co-workers that does it too. thanks too you.

have a nice weekend
Mari

A hidden world emerges from Peru!

A few days ago a charming Peruvian lady sent me several beautiful pictures from her country Peru, what magnificent views! I was gratefully surrounded by those high mountains, the dessert landscape, the blue sea, and of course the beautiful people the country of Peru has. But my admiration was drawn to this marvellous ruin of the Machu Picchu, it was a sensation that I haven't experienced for a long time ago, and a very good sensation. When I saw the different pictures I got from this lady - the Macchu Pichu, the Nazca drawings, the double sunset, the Andes Mountains, the candlestick on the beach, my reaction was: wow! Amazing! No words can describe the feeling I felt in that very moment. The things is that if we, as normal human beings, want to see these marvellous views from a good angle we need to fly in an aeroplane, well, maybe not the Machu Picchu because you canget to that by driving a car, but the view you get from the air is so splendid that there is most be an unforgettable moment in the life of the happy people who can see those things of art, human art.



This Peruvian lady was so exited and happy to introduce to me her country that I didn’t mention that I had already seen these things, but her special way to show me her country inspired me to think, as I wrote in my last blog, to get wings and fly away to Peru. And that’s the feeling that real Bombadillians get of this inspiring people, I want to fly together with all those Bombadilians who are writing through the power of inspiration, the Bombadil inspiration.



Melvin González

Competitive coffee

Bombadillians are not by their nature fiercely competitive, but an element of competition is never a bad thing. Sara has been laughing at me for quite some time now because I am in possession of a very small USB memory stick, whereas she has a 2 GB memory stick. Well, today I am laughing because my new 16GB memory stick has arrived. It's rather funny though, I remember having a computer with a 1GB hard drive, and the hard drive was an optional extra.

Our author school video is finished and up on Youtube. We had a lot of fun making it; it was a lot more scripted than the shorts (we even drew a storyboard for it). See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7cIHvA4SV4



The Media Centre cafe is being planned at the moment, but that hasn't stopped me campaigning for a pub. I'm not holding out much hope, but you never know. But the point is, you're all invited for a cup of hot, inspiring Bombadil coffee one of these days.

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like socks. Again...