An innovation to ease a percussionist’s burden

Here is how R Akshay Ram eased the load of his kit with the support of mridangam-maker Anbu Kumar

R Akshay Ram’s duplex flat on AGS Colony First Main Road has a quaint little open den at the top landing. This space would pause the most hurried strides, leaving even visitors who have no acquaintance with what he does, a definitive understanding of his universe. It sports stacks of mridangams, each set arranged contrastively.

Consisiting of nine mridangams, one set is rested horizontally on a tall mridangam stand that can accommodate ten. A set of three mridangams stand upright, much like how those adorable meerkat manors do, atop a short rack that leans against a wall. Languidness defines the only other set: Mridangams (with what resembles a djembe being thrown into an aesthetically untidy mix) are carelessly plonked on a table, and also around it.

And then, there they are: One mridangam along with two “half-mridangams” staying away from this madding crowd of instruments. Literally, and metaphorically as well.

Primed for performance, they take centre stage, having been placed on a dry grass mat. Having pairing a blue kurta to a denim pant, Akshay places himself behind the troika and before letting his hands show what they are all about, he has some talking to do. Their raison d’etre needs a explanation.

Akshay — whose day job is that of a cost accountant, with Cognizant Technology Solutions in Thoraipakkam — is a readily recognised mridangist in Carnatic music circles. Mridangam rarely sounds in a vaccum, with solo opportunities as rare the Transit of Venus. The sounds of the mridangam are defined largely by the voices they accompany. Having to carry at least three mridangams that are capable of different pitches, mridangam vidwans are usually more heavy-laden than travelling professional tennis players, whose grab-bag is likely to be packed with a wide selection of racquets.

Akshay decided to lighten his essential luggage, teaming up with his go-to man for mridangams: Anbu Kumar (popularly known as ‘Appu’ in these circles), who makes and services mridangams at a unit off Royapettah High Road.

Akshay shared the specifications of a three-in-one mridangam with Appu.