Mattukaran (Cow herdsman)

Kurai onrum illai (no worries) the song composed by non-other than Rajaji as he was fondly remembered and rendered by incomparable MS came floating in the air played in Nadaswaram. I marched eagerly towards the balcony to catch a glimpse of the player of this music. There he was the artist mendicant accompanied by the decorated bull. Memories came flooding from the childhood. Then he was called boom boom Mattukaran (mattukaran meaning man with the bull) and the boom boom referring to the sound of the drum he used to play with. My grandmother would give some food and money. He would go door to door.

To see such a man, well not the same man, after some fifty years on the streets of the one of the fastest developing cities of Bangalore, I was totally taken aback. I wondered how did he pick up this song. Ironic of him to play the song ‘no worries’ when he was going to door to door and street to street. He had a bull to take care as I wondered about his family. Was he getting enough food and alms to feed all the mouths?

The streets of Indian cities tell many a story of development. I see women vendors on the footpath with their vegetable spreads on a plastic sheet. Vegetables are heaped together call as a ‘Kooru’ and sold mostly for Rs 10.00. When you ask the woman to pack one kooru she would give you more than one kooru as she would pick up some veggies and add to the kooru. While I empathize with such women, I get a feeling of annoyance to see footpath encroached by other shop keepers as their right. Somebody had asked about corruption. This is one indication of corruption when the fence eats the grass it supposed to protect. I am sure the shopkeepers line the pockets of the authorities who are supposed to keep the footpath free of encroachment. At least that is what the high court has ordered. In the case of illegal places of worship, the Karnataka government hurriedly passed a bill protecting illegal holy structures since there was a threat posed by the right wingers, overturning the high court order.

Coming back to the mattukaran I wondered if it was an occupation of his caste? Was his father who taught him to play the nadaswaram? Did he not choose an alternative livelihood for himself and his family?

He has moved farther and the music has faded away. I am left with these thoughts. How can he be without worries when I, living in a comfortable flat is not without one?