My strange obsession with pianos !

I was always curious about pianos. Mr Ludwig was our music

teacher and he was the main person responsible for my love

in this particular instrument. I could still remember his reddish

face with big eyes. His lips - always holding a pipe or a cigarette.

  Later (being business minded) the idea somehow came to me

that I should try my hand in pianos-I mean to manufacture and

market it. 

  But my hope soon started fading as I was about to know about

the manufacturing of the said musical instrument ! Little did I

knew that there was a lot of confusion awaiting me. Little by

little I came to know that pianos were not manufactured in

India by that time. I heard a lot of stories about men who tried

but failed. My 10 years old daughter Surela used to take her

 piano lessons from a local teacher named Samar Dutta. He

was attached with the renowned Calcutta School Of Music where

Roshan Chowana was the principal. Mr Dutta used to organize

concerts at his home where my daughter received her first

certificate in piano from the hand of Roshan Chowana.

 However knowing about my intention Mr Dutta gave me the

the information that Mr Russi Mody (then the Chairman and

Managing Director of Tata Steel) tried his hand but failed.

Mr Russi Mody himself was an excellent pianist. I was a bit

discouraged but thought of meeting Leela Devi ( mother of

film artist Madhabi Mukherjee ) who gave regular lessons in

piano to students. She too however gave the impression that

it was not possible to produce it in India. She went to the extent

of relating about a series of coincidences required for producing

a piano in our country. It must be a moonless night-it must be

raining heavily-there must be a skull in the burning ghat-there

must be a hungry snake-there must be a frog -the frog must try

to save itself from the snake-iit must jump into one of the hollow

eyes of the skull-tthe snake must find it and finally kill it etc etc.

This was too much for me to digest.

   In the meantime I have already visited nearly every shops in

Calcutta for some clue. One of the shop owners, after searching

for a while, handed me a paper/brochure. There was a picture

of a mini piano. It was given to the owner by a man who claimed

to have achieved what I was looking for. Immediately I took the

address and went looking for it. Finally I found a soap making

cottage industry near Maniktolla. The owner of the work shop

was the man I was looking for. After hearing me out the man

suddenly became very sentimental . He gave me the impression

that he was long waiting for me. He related in details about his

venture in making a piano. The wooden structure where pegs

(to tie the strings) are planted was the first problem he faced.

Later he came to know that the wood was no ordinary wood. It

should be sufficiently strong to hold the numerous pegs. Not

only that but it should be able to maintain the pegs while they

are repeatedly turned on or loosened while tuning. Such wood

could only be found from a particular kind of tree grown in

Germany-he informed. The man like any other creative man

even tried to collect seeds of such tree and plant them in the

small garden he had. But all his efforts failed since the plant

dried up-probably the Indian weather was unsuitable-   he

presumed. He tried several other methods but the results brought

the same failure.  Later he showed me his final achievement-the

picture of which was in the brochure. Instead of using piano

strings he followed the method applied in a xylophone - just to

maintain the fluctuations of tunes. I appreciated his endeavor

and patience and left -my head full of thoughts.


(To continue )