Donning nauvari sarees and jewellery, a number of Goan women are delighted to be a part of the
Jagdamb Dhol Tasha Pathak, the first ever group to include women. Derived from
the half moon bindi, Jagdamb, worn by Goddess Navdurga, where the group first
met in Madkai, the name of the group is dedicated to women.
Led by Devdatt Naik and Sairaj Naik, the dream of starting a
group that includes women was long time in the making but came to fruition in
January 2019. Sairaj Naik has been part of different pathaks including Friends
Circle, Shiroda and Shiroda Mandaleshwar Shigmotsav for over five years and is
the mentor of Jagdamb, alternating practices at Shiroda and Madkai. “When we
started, we didn’t have many members and just two women, Padmaja Prabhu, the
wife of Devdatt, and Sailee Madkaikar. We started with the purpose of
performing for Shiv Jayanti in February 2019, for which we had a 65-member
group and just two women. Following our first performance at Ganesh Jayanti in
Bethora, Ponda, many women came forward to join the group,” says Sairaj.
The group went on to perform for Shiv Jayanti at various venues
including Ponda, Sanvordem, Quepem, Balli- Cuncolim and Margao and Daiz 2018-19
at Mardol, Ponda.
“On February 19, 2019, for Shiv Jayanti, we had nearly 44 women
in our group aged between 12 to 38 years. Now we have 50 ‘dhols’, 20 ‘tashe’
and 85 group members, with women making up a majority of the group. When these
women first joined the troupe, there were many who criticised them but later
on, they themselves were eager to join in. They have to walk nearly two
kilometres carrying and playing the dhol but their energy level is so high that
it doesn’t bother them,” he says. The musical instruments include dhol, tashe,
kasale and metal bells along with a shell.
Sailee Madkaikar from Madkai was the first woman to join the
group after Padmaja. She shares her experience on what made her join this
trend-setting group. “I used to watch Youtube videos regarding Dhol Tasha
played by many Pathaks from Mumbai and Nashik. My elder brother, Deepraj
Damodar Madkaikar, plays along with me and has been my biggest support. I
always had a craze about playing an instrument but dhol tasha pathak is now a
part of me. Sairaj has put a lot of effort in teaching and made every ‘vadak’
(musician) to have that craze towards our Pathak. I’m grateful to Sairaj,
Devdatt and Deepraj,” says Sailee.
She adds, “I always wanted to stand out from the crowd so I
picked up the loudest instrument – the dhol. It is a great feeling to know that
other women are inspired by me and I’ve opened the door to women wanting to
learn the dhol. When others want to learn the dhol from me and look up to me,
professionally and personally, I feel a great sense of fulfilment.”
Nandita Parab from Margao is working in the Human Resources
department of a reputed company but playing a dhol was on her bucket list. She
is one of the newest members to join the group. “As a freelance photographer, I
had attended a program, where I saw the group performing and I was impressed
that even girls were a part of it. After joining them, I learnt one set of
beats within a day. I go for practices for the Shiroda batch from 7:30pm to
10:30pm and we don’t know how time flies with the reverberating energy. My
family has been very encouraging and this adds to my energy level when they
cheer me up. I am looking forward to performing with the group for the first
time on September 10, 2019,” says Nandita.
The
next performance by Jagdamb will be on September 8, 2019 at Zuarinagar, Vasco
and on September 10, 2019 at Quepem Market. “This time, we are doing jugalbandi
of dhol, tashe and Goan folk instruments like ghumot for Ganesh Visarjan. For
the Vasco performance, besides dhol, tashe we will use the Punjabi dhol and for
the Quepem Visarjan we will include the ghumot and Punjabi dhol,” says Sairaj,
with the same vigour required by a dhol player.
