The Solitary Piper

It was in 1960, in a tinsel hamlet named Padum Pukhuri that an inborn talent, Kumar Daimary received his maiden tutorial on how to play the flute from his father who gifted him with a hand made pipe. This musician has stayed true to his art form and though audiences are slowly dwindling away, he perseveres till this day, reminiscing the times he used to enthrall packed venues across the country.
Kumar Daimary is facing the grueling challenges of life with a smirk. In spite of the burden of providing for his household; Daimary makes time to continue pursuing his passion for music even after he has graced stages all over for more than four decades. The tired instrumentalist all on an unexpected note is finding himself unaccompanied, his golden days; his fellow artists have left the scene quietly, unable to cope up with the barrage of modern electronic instruments.
An acoustic player, Kumar Daimary finds his himself in a precarious situation now as the invasion of roaring electronic gadgets like keyboards, workstations, electronic drum machines is drowning out the soft sounds of his flute. Like the sounds of his helpless pipe, this piper’s hopes are sinking slowly now. After all who cares for traditional Indian musical instruments in this age of hot pop and rock shows?
All that the audience of today wants is hullabaloo. Even the sponsors are only interested in casting modern musicians and jubilee like music stalwarts who with their buzzing compositions can keep the tanked up so called music lovers or rather aficionados dancing till the crack of dawn.
A father of two sons, Kumar Daimary and his spouse are adrift now. This specialist in the flute, the harmonium, the mandolin, the tabla, the ramtal (brass clapper), the violin, the madol and the sonaru path has no clue as to why in his very own, very typically traditional land he is treated like an alien musician. “People look at me like a museum display who has landed in the midst of a live concert, with a lot of curiosity in their eyes, they question what I am supposed to do with my old musical instruments, its like a crow in the midst of peacocks,” Daimary opines.
In Lily Rongpipi, Daimary got a most trusted life partner. Wedded way back and still best partners for more than 23 years, they commenced their family life amidst an unwavering financial crunch and with the passage of time the economic predicament has tightened its tentacle on the otherwise jovial couple.
Lily had to take up weaving to cope up the mounting requirements of her small family; she for years had to produce traditional dresses at her own knitting machine, later selling them to customers. Lily’s occasional ailment no longer permits her to tackle the grueling schedule of this trade.
The rollercoaster ride the family is trapped in thunders on. Daimary at present is busy in arranging two square meals for his children, although he dreams of getting some backing from certain quarters but doesn’t have the monetary support  to salvage his state of affairs.
In spite of all the troubles, life is beautiful for Kumar Daimary as this contented man keeps bearing the brunt of the hushed misery that he is going through. He plods on, hoping that his fortune changes or that some compassionate soul delivers him from his undeclared destitute.

Sushanta Roy