My experiences with Tasha and overall learnings

I am an avid music listener and have spent my childhood in Shaniwar, Navi and Sadashiv Peth. Now when it comes to music I have a habit of listening to the radio since morning and I used to feel astonished when my parents, grandparents and maternal relatives used to guess the old Bollywood songs, music directors and singers just by listening to the initial piece of the song. I think music plays a critical role in relaxing the mind and it can be a mood changer when you are feeling low. Well, I had an inclination for many musical instruments I started with mouth-organ which belongs to the family of wind instruments because it was portable, cheap and required no setting or tuning. I had been learning guitar, which comes under string instruments.  The guitar has its own unique charm and is an instrument which can be enjoyed at low pitch. First things first, musical instruments and the word “easy” does not go hand in hand. Every musical instrument is difficult and requires regular practice. There are many self-proclaimed masters roaming in the market these days, but I don’t belong to that category of species.  I wanted to try out an instrument which belongs to the percussion family. I was initially skeptical since I don’t like percussion instruments since they generate loud noise. It was during the month of June’16 when Dnyanand Kondhare who is a good friend of mine told me his plan of starting a Dhol Tasha Pathak. He had meticulously planned everything and explained me its various aspects. 

I was delighted by the idea since I would be able to learn Tasha right from scratch. I say so because I have tried my luck to learn Tasha in Ramanbaug and Garware Pathak couple of years back. The waiting (Especially for Tasha) in those Pathak’s is huge and you simply end up playing a Dhol which happened with me for two years. Well, I did like Dhol, but I strongly felt that the magic which Tasha has can rarely be brought out by a Dhol.

Day 1 of learning Tasha started with how to hold the sticks and explaining the very basics of Tasha. After the basics were over prathemesh started teaching us some basic tunes of 2 beats and then of 4 beats. The process as such is pretty straightforward. The lead player plays variations and others repeat and the same goes on. Tasha players ensure that they keep the speed constant otherwise it can mislead the people who play Dhol. There is an inevitable blame game which happens every time between the Dhol and Tasha leads when it comes to speed. We used to practice daily at our dedicated place for 2 hours. It used to be a group session of one hour each. We had a group of 12 Tasha players of which 2 were leaders. Discipline is not a onetime activity, but it’s a habit. The punctuality of everyone, including me, was a serious problem which surfaced out within the first few weeks. It resulted in delay in starting the practice, most of the times. I think this is one of the cardinal problems which most of the Dhol Tasha Pathak’s face these days. The obvious reason being that the number of people who come from office is close to 50%. It obviously brings out the uncontrollable factors like bosses not allowing people to leave early, traffic of Pune, delay due to a car pulling issues to name a few. While, punctuality and discipline are serious issues here, I don’t see an immediate quick fix solution for it and their’s no guarantee that it won’t repeat again next year. These are my personal views and I am sure that our group leaders will try to align the Pathak with the best practices which we see in this market. The ownership still lies with each one of us. 

We kept on practicing some basic and some difficult variations on Tasha for next 30-40 days. Prathemesh and Abhishek ensured that we gradually build our expertise and they always had a contingency plan if we fail to play right rhydum. Prathamesh and Abhishek are both talented lead Tasha players and are good teachers.

Our Lead Tasha Players Abhishek & Prathemesh

I have rarely seen people who are talented are good when it comes to teaching or explaining things in an easy way. We learned various pieces of Gajar, Mathadi,Gavathi to name a few. I sincerely feel that Tasha produces some punch points which are absolutely soothing to the ears.

Tasha Team

We live in a world where people who are accurate, perfect and beautiful are highly valued and accepted by the society. I think any social platform wherein you learn new things from people around you helps in keeping aside your false ego’s. The problem nowadays is everyone has 250 grams of ego and behave as if they are like the great emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar. This Dhol Tasha union helps in connecting with likeminded people who we otherwise don’t meet. It also gives us a platform to share experiences, thoughts, ideas, failures with others. It also helped me in reinstating the fact that one should never judge or label anyone because it changes the programming of your mind and it is the thoughts which are of utmost importance. Thoughts create feelings, which in turn creates actions, actions become habit which makes an individual’s personality. I know I am going off-track from the topic, but I think in a social setup apart from knowledge and skills, the thoughts or the vibrations which one generates is equally important. I think Indian people spend too much time in discussing others, gossiping and creating negative thoughts that the sole purpose of why they have joined a social group gets defeated. Music is a mind game. If your mind is full of negative energy no matter how accurate and perfect you play a Dhol or Tasha you won’t be able to produce quality music. I think this transformation of thoughts is very important if we need to take this unit to a different level.

The other thing which satisfies me is that I know how to play a Tasha or maybe I have passed the basic level of playing a Tasha. 

That's me :)

Why I say so, is I see people don’t live in their present moment these days and don’t celebrate success.Instead, they continue comparing them with others, and enter in a never ending game. There is no doubt that one has to improve and grow in life. But this constant thought of comparing with others only harms an individual since one always feel inferior. Even if one reaches the pinnacle of success or becomes best in class their always remains the fear as to how long he will be able to sustain it. I will definitely celebrate my Tasha success with my friends while taking incremental goals for next year. Happiness within and effort outside is what matters.

Dnyanand & Badal : They made the journey look simple

Last but not the last, I salute the overall leadership, organizing abilities and management of Dnyanand Kondhare and Badal Awate here. They have shown unwavering focus on execution of each and every activity that involved making this unit successful. There are many positive takeaways for me from this 2 friends and we have many, many memories to cherish, till we meet again in 2017 under the banner of Balgarjana Dhol Tasha Pathak.