Meet Somnath Bandopadhyay, who makes xylophone out of daily waste

Somnath Bandopadhyay has been toying with various objects in his unique effort of making musical instruments from recycled waste. Today, he is ready with a xylophone made out of daily waste and is creating ripples in the music scenario.

Kolkata: For years, Somnath Bandopadhyay has been toying with various objects in his unique effort of making musical instruments from recycled waste. Today, he is ready with a Xylophone made out of daily life waste and is creating ripples in the music scenario. Somnath is a resident of Serampore in the Hooghly district of West Bengal and is the youngest son of famous instrumentalist, Nirad Baran Bandopadhyay.

Senior Bandopadhyay was a well known figure of his times. He rubbed shoulders with musicians from home and abroad including Tripura-based Rajatranga's Brajen Biswas and legendary Sachin Dev Burman (father of RD Burman). Incidentally, he was the first person who wanted to create an Indian version of xylophone. He was successful to an extent on this count as was evident from his wooden musical instrument. No wonder, he had accompanied sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar in many shows, and also accompanied famous Sarod player Timirbaran Bhattacharya in 1948.

Somnath Bandopadhyay and his elder brother Narayan Bandopadhyay were attracted to their father's unique instruments since their childhood days. To encourage their sons, senior Bandopadhyay created bamboo-made instruments for them.

"First my father collected a special type of 'Talta' bamboo from the market. After that, the bamboo was seasoned through exposure to water and sun rays. It's only after that the new musical instrument was created from that specially-seasoned bamboo," Somnath told ETV Bharat.

Many thought that Somnath would toe his father's line and experiment with bamboo-made musical instruments. However, life often does not move in the way expected. Both the wooden and the bamboo-made instruments were left unused in one corner for various family reasons.

Somnath played the instruments during his college's fresher welcome programme. Naturally, the wooden and bamboo-made instruments attracted the attention of the listeners. However, Somnath himself was not keen on experiments with wooden and bamboo-made instruments. Rather he was keen on getting involved in life's struggle.

However, he could not avoid his passion for music for long. His wife Geeta Bandopadhyay, a school teacher by profession, was the first one to encourage him on this count. She helped her husband organised a musical programme in 2010. In that programme, he mesmerized the listeners as he played the bamboo-made instruments. Since then the musical programme has become an annual event and currently it is one of the most popular musical programmes in Serampore.

There he realized that the real rhythm is hidden in daily life. He also realized that even that rhythm is hidden in the daily wastes. In 2016, he felt that hidden rhythm in the sound of ceramic tiles while the masons were busy repairing his home. "The sound of a ceramic tile falling on the floor just shocked me. I asked the mason to drop the tile again. He was surprised. That was the beginning. Then I created a new musical instrument by moulding ceramic tiles," he said. Days later, he went on to create a clay musical instrument and for that he even went to Bangaon in search of special clay tiles.

That was not the end of Somnath's quest. His next creation was a special musical instrument made out of a sauce bottle. "I collected several old bottles from several places including the dump yards. But I was not getting the desired effect till I got that from an old sauce bottle," he said.

Somnath's musical endeavours has passed on even to his son, Saptarshi. Seems the family's musical traditions are passed to new generations seamlessly.