Travails of a morsing artiste!

The father was aghast when his daughter announced she is getting married to a “morsing” artiste. He fumbled for words, “Morsing? Who is a morsing artiste? Does “morsing” mean he sings more, does he?” Daughter replied, “No! He is not a singer. He plays the musical instrument called morsing.”

Soon, the prospective son-in-law was summoned. He was immediately ready to give a "live demonstration" to father-in-law. He took out his tiny instrument- clasped it between his teeth like a tongue-cleaner. He held the tongue-cleaner with one hand and used the other hand to pluck it rhythmically. The whole room was filled with reverberations of “toin-toin-toin!”

He started with Adi Taala and moved to Rupaka taala. He grandly announced, “I am now going to play Jhampa taala”. “Jump a what?” father-in-law asked, all confused. The young man answered, with the instrument still between his teeth, “Jhampa taala, jhampa taala” loudly, as though father-in-law was hard of hearing! Father-in-law was totally clueless.  As far as he was concerned, it all sounded the same- “toin-toin-toin” or at the most “tia-toin-tia-toin” for some variety. The demonstration had no end in sight. Eventually, father-in-law stood up, all impatient, “Can you play some known song? May be, the song "ek-do-teen" from the Hindi film Tezaab?" The young man was shocked- “Sir, morsing is a percussion instrument! How can you play a song? This is not a naadaswaram!”

Father-in-law had other valid concerns. How will he communicate to his friends about a “morsing son-in-law”? “Morsing? He is a North Indian, like Ramsingh and Mansingh, is he?” his friend asked. “No, no! He plays an instrument called morsing!” Finally, he asked his daughter, “Can he upgrade his skills to something more marketable? He can take up "tabla" or may be, mridangam or even ghatam! Why morsing of all things?”

Daughter was offended, “Father, he is an artiste! He is an artiste! He did not choose the morsing. The morsing chose him!” There were practical considerations that had to be voiced. Father asked, “Can he make a living doing toin-toin-toin all the time?” The parental concern was genuine. However, daughter walked off in a huff!

Morsing artistes face rejection all the time. They must be built of sterner stuff to even pick up the instrument. Not just in pedestrian circles, even in classical music circles, they are sort of...children of a lesser god! The typical Carnatic music concert has a vocalist, a mrdangam artiste and a violinist. Sometimes, a ghatam artiste is added for embellishment, and at times, a “kanjira” player. And in the rarest of rare cases, the morsing finally finds a place.

During the concert, there are unwritten rules for the morsing artiste alone. He cannot play all the time. He will be much too noisy and will drown everyone with his din. He must keep it soft and play intermittently. Towards the end of the musical piece, there is a quadrilateral skirmish between the vocalist, the violinist, the ghatam and the mridangam player. In that culmination sequence, the morsing artiste joins the collective noise and brings the piece to a climactic finish! The rest of the time, he idles away, seated behind the main artiste, alongside the tambura player, encouraging the other artistes with shouts of “shabhash-shabash” and “baley-baley!” That’s part of his job description.

When he was a mere slip of a boy, his inauguration concert, the “arangetram”, was organized. The morsing boy should have been the cynosure of all eyes. After all, it was his concert. Surprisingly, the audience forgot this fact. Once the concert was over, they made a beeline to congratulate the vocalist. You can imagine the morsing artiste’s plight. Morsing is the perennial “also ran” in the race, forever the “Sahadeva”, overshadowed by his more illustrious brothers!

Moreover, each morning when he does his “riyaz”, his neighbors have a complaint. Soon, his wife expresses her displeasure. “You cannot wake up at 4 am and go toin-toin-toin! I cannot sleep, neither can I stay at home. There is no respite- you are going toin-toin-toin all the time! Have some mercy on us!”

When the music-troupe travels abroad, and performs before a “foreign” audience, they find “morsing” the most exotic instrument they have ever seen.  They want to know whether it is held between the teeth or between the nostrils. “This is so cool! We love the morsing!” they squeal and take selfies with our man!

Every dog has his day…and eventually gets his due…even if he is...a morsing artiste!