I remembered something rather odd this afternoon whilst talking to Mugdha Karnik. When I was about 9-10yrs old my grandfather once took me to Matharpacady on a Sunday morning and parked outside a small house with a little garden. A few minutes later the locals came back from Sunday Mass and the lane was full of East Indians in stylish frocks and suits. Two old gents entered the house and came out with chairs, they then proceeded to play musical instuments seemingly oblivious to the people who had gathered outside. I was up against the wall with granpa behind me. One of the gentlemen was playing a violin but it was the other who was the star. He was playing a large wood cutting saw! Handle pressed to his left shoulder tip pinched firmly in his fingers, blade bent and a violin bow in his right hand. That saw played the eeriest music I have ever heard ... it was hauntingly beautiful and I was rivetted to that wall for the next hour or so. They played a lot of classical music and at the end of the session bowed to the gathered public picked up the chairs and went in. I have never forgotten that man and that music. Years later I spoke to Prof Dr Mani Kamerkar (Historian) who specialised in dramatics and dramatists of the last century and she told me that they was many an East Indian/Anglo Indian esp from the Railway services who played the Saw. But that as far as she knew it was a dead tradition. Ms Karnik quickly queried youtube and before you knew it the office at Centre for Extra Mural Studies, University of Mumbai was full of the same eerie sounds it was hauntingly familiar. Full deja vu. I took to Google to look for any sighns of the man and lo behold! at a website called Ancestry was the query of a lady who talked of her grandfather Cmdr. Eric Lopes of Matharpacadywho used to play the saw!! Its a small world after all. Does anyone know of saw players in India? These guys on youtube all hold the saw between their legs and most dont have teeth ... I know both toothed and toothless are played and Cmdr Lopes was most definitely toothed and played from the shoulder! https://youtube/watch?v=cHP9YBNK5AU
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:44:08 +0000
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