The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : They dance to the tunes of inflation

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

They dance to the tunes of inflation

— Photo: G. Moorthy.

A tale of woe: V.Pandi, a ‘thapattam’ artiste, seen with his family members.

For folk artistes, the formula that drives their life is ‘smile now, cry later.’ Whatever the situation and however much they are stricken by poverty, these practitioners of traditional arts entertain others. Now, with rising prices, life has become unmanageable. These artistes are slowly ditching their art, rather unwillingly, as it has failed to enable them make both ends meet.

“Once in a while, we cook food and have chicken. We are not sure about when we will have a sumptuous meal,” says V. Pandi. The 30-year-old Pandi, who learnt ‘thappattam’ in his teens out of love for the art, is fighting poverty with all his might but in vain.

“We entertain others with our music but we live an entertainment-starved life,” he notes philosophically. He earns a meagre sum of Rs.600 during normal months. During festival season, spanning three months in a year, he becomes richer by another Rs.600.

“There is no necessity for a budget. What will you do with just Rs.600,” he asks desperately and adds that his only solace that helps to have three feeds a day is the rice bought from ration shops at Rs 2 a kg.

There are around 200 folk artiste families in Purathchi Thalaivar Nagar. They all cook only rice and buy sambar or other foodstuff from people, who sell hotel food, often referred to as ‘hotel palasu.’

Pandi, who is a father of five children, spends Rs.10 to get sambar to fill seven stomachs. “We cannot afford more than Rs.10 for food,” says his wife Murugammal. Pandi’s family lives in a small room without electricity and his wife still cooks with firewood.

“For a day, we need to spend Rs.7 on firewood. To avoid this expense, she collects some waste and firewood from outside,” he says. But Murugammal is determined that she will somehow manage to educate all her children so that they can lead a comfortable life.

Concurs C. Nallathambi, another thappattam artiste. We cook rice and buy sambar for Rs.4 for a five-member family. Nallathambi also earns as much as Pandi. “Except for food, we do not spend on anything,” says his wife N. Kaliswari.

Nallathambi also wants to educate his children but he is sure that they cannot go beyond SSLC. “No one in our families has come up in their life. Even after tenth standard, they just come to us and begin to wallow in poverty. We do not want the children to come into this but we have no choice at all,” he says.

Are you not allowing your art to perish?

“The art will not perish,” says and adds that somebody will be there to maintain it but on a low key. “We just live in debts and penury,” says N. Muthupandi, president of Gramiya Kalai Sangam, Avaniapuram. “There is no fixed income but I will not earn more than Rs. 4000 to Rs.5000 during the season.”

“Nowadays, there is neither respect nor money and little recognition. How can we expect youth to take up our arts?” M. Angusamy, nagaswaram vidwan, queries.

Sixteen-year-old N. C. Madurai Veeran, who initially wanted to become a folk artiste, is now a daily wage earner.

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