The smelly ubiquitous drains bifurcating each and every thin road inside West Delhi’s controversial Kathputli Colony, creating probably the most disease-prone environment, magically leaves a trail for us to find genuine music. It is common human psychology to desire or want the instrument needed to produce the music one wishes to play and without which it is also widely thought that music cannot be made. As for instance, a drummer can’t do without drums, a guitarist might not apparently get the ‘feel’ of music without a high end guitar but music in reality, can be made with anything and everything.
“The Jugaad Music Group” of the colony, formed by the House of Puppet can be certainly called an epitome of talent. The group of 10 boys aged between 9 years to 15 years, calling themselves the Bhaat family, are adept in probably most of the art forms that a wanna- be-artist would love to excel in. Their speciality lies in producing music with thrown-away goods ranging from small water reservoirs , tin boxes, paint boxes, cooking utensils to water pipes and many more. In addition, to help with the beats, couple of Dhols are also used. The indigenous instruments are hollowed out to produce the correct sound. Apart from these, the boys sing like professionals, just as smooth as honey. To make up for the lack of drumsticks, strong twigs and colourful toy sticks are used instead giving the whole setup a literal meaning of the group’s name.
The rhythmic compositions coordinated with the correct beats and pauses in between corroborated with unique body percussion techniques such as thumping of the chest and slapping of the thighs are bound to give the audience a jaw dropping effect.
28 year old Kailash Bhaat, who is the founder of the House of Puppet NGO, narrates the interesting story behind the formation of “Jugaad”. Kailash runs the NGO and the group with whatever funds he gets from conducting weekend shows at the colony, having spectators from all around the world.
Playing the Kartal himself, he skilled the boys in every art form they know till date, simultaneously blending their learning with weekly French and English classes with the help of a foreigner friend.
“ I believe in freewill of education. So, the boys were interested in theatre, acting, singing, puppet making and crafts. They also wanted to learn English and French and now they know it all,” said a proud Kailash who also seems to be a staunch believer in schooling. "If the boys don’t go to school, they are not allowed to be a part of the group”.
The group on a daily basis rehearses to prepare themselves for their France tour in November this year as the “team should be perfect, tight with no drawback”, says 9-year-old performer Manav exuding tremendous willingness and determination.
Jugaad music group, through the House of Puppet, in collaboration with French Dance companies Pink & Mango and Reunion will perform all around France, sharing the expenses amongst themselves. They will showcase their own improvised play called “The Gypsy Karwa” which potrays the genesis of the Kathputli colony. The story entails the journey of the Bhaat community from the Rajputana Darbar to the Shadipur Depot of Delhi where they had settled down five decades back.
In a vast impoverished place like Kathputli colony which houses over 2,800 families devoid of any developmental initiatives by the government of Delhi, with the inhabitants being at constant loggerheads with the Delhi Development Authority over “Rehabilitation” and displacement issues, a small group like Jugaad has come out with varying shades of music. As the boys perform “ Char Ko Maro Rang Rangila” with passion filled eyes, they temporarily forget their dream of being a superstar and dive into soulful music.
Akash bhaat, the oldest in the team after effortlessly showing a trick says, “We have art in our blood and we will never let it fade away".
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