Innovation at the oddest of places

Every Saturday evening for a few months now, I have been praying at a Shiva temple near my house. On multiple occasions, I have been there during ‘Deeparadhana’ time. As usual there is the accompaniment (‘kottu’) of musical instruments (drums and cymbals) while devotees wait for the ‘nada’ to open and for the ‘arathi’ to start.

Since there is a rush around Deeparadhana time, I had never actually seen the two chaps who play the drums and the cymbals. However my observation was that the quality has been consistent over the past few months – hence assumed that same chaps were behind the kottu.

Yesterday, I happened to make a ‘pradhikshanam’ when the kottu was on. Can you imagine what I saw? The kottu was being played by an electrical device which had two arms for the drums two more for the cymbals! The timing mechanism of the individual arms were adjusted to create the effect of a kottu! The whole thing was being amplified by a loudspeaker. As soon as the arathi was over, one of the chaps went and switched off the device!

I do not know if this invention was caused by necessity (unavailability of eligible/skilled persons for the kottu) or driven by financials (this is after all a small temple) – either way it was nice to see this innovation at the unlikeliest of places!!

Shiva Shambho!!