Do-be-do-be-doo

“I just love the look on people’s faces when I tell them it’s an Indian musical instrument, even though you’d think it’s a bottle opener,” says Varunn Lulla, 24, about the morsing he has been playing for five years now.

“In Carnatic music it’s called the morchang, in the north it’s morzang. It has scores of names worldwide, including Jew’s harp,” he adds.

Surprised that he’s not talking about the guitar or drums? Well, don’t be.

An increasing number of young Indians are trying their hands—or mouths—at a variety of rare musical instruments. The Jew’s harp is a metal instrument held against the mouth, and a little metal tongue at its end is plucked to produce a twangy sound.

Centuries ago, when termites in the Australian wilderness hollowed out the barks of eucalyptus trees, little did they know that they had created a drone instrument whose mesmerising sound would be popular till date.

The didgeridoo originated as an aboriginal wind instrument. A long wooden pipe, today’s didgeridoos even have holes to modify the tone.

Shreya Dubey, 19, a mass media student at KC College, sings classical music and plays the tanpura—but loves to unwind playing the didgeridoo, or doo as she calls it.

She picked up hers in Bangkok, after watching her theatre teacher Rashid Ansari incorporate it in his theatre.

“An actor in Neeraj Kabi’s Pravah Theatre Group that I work with, also plays the doo. It is getting quite popular—I see a lot of youngsters playing it at Bandra Bandstand. I’ve even got a friend in Bombay who made a doo out of a tobacco plant,” she grins.

Mark Jonathan Fernandes, 22, is a Pune student who has been playing the “deej,” as he calls it, for three years.

He teaches Indians and foreigners to play it and is invited to set the mood at Osho meditative sessions.

He feels the didgeridoo jams well with almost any genre, from drum ’n’ bass, jazz, trance, to electronica, metal, funk and even tribal music. “Indians are getting more interested in learning it. When I went to Bangalore recently, many youngsters pleaded with me to teach them,” he says.

Anirudh Bhargava, managing director of Tribal Earth Sounds India (who supplies didgeridoos and Bastar Adivasi wind instruments to the Bhargava’s Music sales outlet) says, “The last three years have seen 100 per cent annual growth in domestic sales.” He exports to Europe, US, Japan, Fiji—and even Australia.

While both the morsing and didgeridoo can often be spotted at musical gatherings in spiritual tourist spots such as Rishikesh, Goa, Rajasthan and Dharamshala, it won’t be long before you see them on a stage near you.
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