Twenty-Two

Abstract

Several days had passed, but Maranki’s J gramophone still remained a wonder to the people of Parivara Street. They’d heard the songs several times over, yet didn’t feel bored. They knew the songs by heart now. Since times past memory, tuneful melodies had been sung in the Parivara Street, at the crack of dawn while grinding ragi, the notes rising and falling with the rise and fall of the whirling grindstone. When these “machine-songs” arrived on the scene, folk songs ran the risk of slipping into extinction. Never mind when people were around, even when they were alone, milling ragi, young girls were self conscious about crooning these folk songs. Film songs didn’t suit the rhythm of the moving grindstone, yet girls tried to make those songs chime with the rhythm of the millstone and failed in their attempts. The failure had a cheering effect!