Nandita Datta
Agartala, July 20, 2019: Rosem is his pride, love, story, and everything. Thanga Darlong has learned this instrument from his father Hagdonga Darlong and later on from Darkhowama Darlong. The heritage he has obtained from his father at the age of 12, is now leading him to find eternity on the threshold of a hundred years. No personal incident, good or bad could not apart from him from Rosem. He has received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award and later on Padmashri.
This instrument is a traditional instrument of the Darlong community made out of a special kind of bottle gourd produced in jhum. Rosem falls in flute category. However, this is not that regular flute that we see around us in fairs or kirtans. Seven different bamboos have to be inserted into a dry bottle gourd shell having proper measurements. Thanga used to play this instrument during jhum or any other social events. The melodious tune of Rosem hovers on hills to hills to fetch peace and tranquillity. Thanga’s performance used to mesmerize every listener. However, his old age has halted the continuity of playing but its melody has not left him.
His took birth on 20th July 1920 at Deorachara village of Unokoti District. Many people have reached to him to listen to his tune from national to international sphere and documentaries are also made on him. He has been invited to Thailand and Japan for playing this instrument. No one before Thanga Darlong could popularize this instrument worldwide. In spite of financial difficulties, Thanga kept on playing Rosem.
This is a very difficult instrument to play and that is one of the reasons that there is no good bearer of his tune after him. His few disciples are trying to preserve the tunes but they could only remember a handful of them. This is a general tendency of us to create music out of the wind and that is the reason of whistle playing trough mouth. Many of us get relaxed to hear the enchanting tune of the flute. In rural areas, people play or hear this instrument to find an escape route their sufferings. The magical sound of flute helps us to be in a different world altogether.
This is how tradition survives, which helps a culture to be in continuity through such practices. Jhum has been a foreground of tradition, culture, rites, rituals and many more. And music is an essential part of jhum cultivation. Here on comes the role of the flute which is been played by many during the cultivation season. Remarkably, this instrument is made of natural substances, which is played to invoke the Nature herself. The tunes of flute not only soothe the ear but carries love, care and relationship from one place to the other.
Each and every indigenous community of this state has its own culture and instrument. Rosem is the instrument of the Darlong community. The tunes created by Thanga might not be classical or traditional but he has those tunes, which narrate the joy and sorrow of his very own people, connecting soul to soul. His meditation on Rosem helped him to compose heart-wrenching melodies. In indigenous communities, musical instruments are capable of telling their stories through their own instruments.
The songs of peripheries boost the people of that region to live their lives in their own terms. The tunes of Rosem are about to lose. Disruption in subtle nuances of this instrument makes it deviated. Thanga Darlong is now in search of a proper disciple, who will be a torchbearer of the Rosem tradition. He is expecting patronage to keep up the heritage of this instrument for the near future.
Thanga is an ardent devotee of this instrument. On hearing of his Padmashri Award, he became nostalgic. His wish was if his wife would have been alive then she’d been delighted. He is also the recipient of ‘Ajibon Sukriti Samman’(2019) named after the former prime minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Bajpayee. He is still optimistic about the lineage of this instrument in the near future.
Eminent film director Jessie Joseph, in his documentary on Thanga Darlong has projected that his grandson will be the flag-bearer of this tradition. Not even in reel life, in real also his grandson is his sole companion. Thanga Darlong will be stepping at hundred in 2020. This is the outset of his centenary from 20th July onwards. He is even now also enamored in the mysteriously magical realm of Rosem.
Rosem has upheld the pride of our state. This instrument is an integral part of the culture and tradition of this state. We are in the hope of heir. With the rise of materialistic greed and money, many things are at the verge of extinction like Rosem. Thanga Darlong is itself an institution. I cross my finger while saying; he is the Last of the Mohicans. On one fine day, when Thanga Darlong and Rosem will unite in eternity, will make us remember, once upon a time Thanga Darlong received the prestigious Padmashri Award. (First Published in Tripura Times, Dt July 20, 2019)
