Went to see performances in a folk music event celebrating the musical traditions of ethnic groups from different forests of India and the role of indigenous communities in protecting forests - organised by the UNDP. A friend who recently moved to India accompanied me. There were two performances yesterday - from Manipur and Sunderbans. I liked the music of Manipur (a state in North East India) presented by Rewben Mashangra and his son Sasa[i]. They used a variety of sounds and musical instruments. Mr. Mashangra provided relief between different pieces with his lively commentary and translation. He improvised the music to suit the taste of different kinds of audiences.
The second performance was in form of Jatra Pala – folk theatre traditionally popular in rural Bengal[ii]. It told the story of Bon Bibi[iii] (lady of the jungle), protector goddess of the jungles of Sunderbans (world's largest mangrove forests, in coastal Bengal) through dialogues and music. This one was less sophisticated, used the kind of instruments they use in such theatre (appeared loud and out of tune) and no translation was provided for the one-hour play. Since I knew the language, I translated the dialogues to my friend. We were among the few audience members, who stayed back till the end.
All in all, an interesting evening, it was good to be refreshed about the folk traditions of this country.
[i] wasn’t too clear but the presenter seemed to be saying Mashangra is from Nagaland but the music was from Manipur
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