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Notes
on the net
Seventy-six-year-old
Meenakashi Shankar fishes out an old coffee roaster from a cupboard in her
kitchen. Outside, 9 yard saris, jasmine strands, diamond studs, coffee
tumblers, the ringing phone, all jostle for attention as traditional
Brahmin housewives in a typical Tamil household in Chennai's Adyar suburb
get ready to put pestle to mortar, knife to chopping board. But for a
different purpose. These women, known for making music with household
items, have landed an audience on the Internet. On www.numtv.com, an
initiative of Chennai's PentaMedia Graphics. The 10-member troupe, who've
been performing at weddings, temples and ladies' clubs -- not for the
money, but for "a change of routine" -- are a bubbly lot.
Especially band leader Shankar who, despite her advanced years, is the
tireless one, writing lyrics in Hindi and Tamil, producing notes out of a
rice sieve. She's been doing it since 1954. So how does it feel to be on
the Net? "The world will now come to know of us," she replies.
Nothing like netting an audience.
-Methil
Renuka
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