Amid the corona virus scare where the people have been leisurely spending their time indoors.Quinquagenarian of Udalguri district is contrarily investing his time to produce ‘Dotora’ and ‘Dogor’ the two popular musical instruments used in various genres of folk music in Bengal and Assam.
Though the art of crafting the instruments require good craftsmanship, Naren Deka a fourth-grade employee of Tangla Girls High School, Udalguri district and an inhabitant of Milanpur locality of Tangla town Udalguri district who had imbibed the skills three decades back is putting best efforts to keep himself engaged in the leisure period and produce the instruments.
Over the years, the folk musical instruments of Assam are overtaken by the western musical instruments and the apathy of government to encourage such craftsmanship have also posed threat to the indigenous skills which is dying a slow death.
Deka in a relaxed atmosphere while sitting in the courtyard of his home has been diligently focusing on giving the instruments final touch up for the past one and half month and has targeted to produce 50 Dotora and Dogor each.
Deka told Times of Northeast, “I have imbibed the art of making them during my youthhood days when I was unemployed but after getting absorbed in the school as a fourth-grade employee, I only played the instruments in cultural shows but the lockdown period has allowed me to make some of them and invoke the interest of the young generation who these days only knows about guitar and allied western music instruments.”
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