Young hit wonder: Little drummer boy

The sounds of the tabla reverberate in a small villa in Sharjah. Nothing new in that, except that the tiny hands tapping this twin-drum Indian percussion instrument belong to a two-year-old boy.

Dubai-born Mantej Singh is a child celebrity in the local Sikh community.

"The senior boys in the Sangat [community group] wait for him to join on Friday before they start playing music," said the boy’s mother Kawalpreet Kaur.

"He will not allow any other boy to play the tabla, such is his obsession with it," she added.

The tabla is his toy and nobody at home, be it his grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts or cousin, can miss the sounds when he plays it through the day.

Influences

Mantej’s father Jaswinder, a cargo airline employee, is proficient in tabla, keyboard, mandolin and guitar. He has been a major influence in Mantej’s life.

It was on a visit to the local gurudwara (Sikh temple) in Bur Dubai that Mantej took a liking to the notes of the Gurbani (worship song), and has since played along with the group of professionals whenever he gets the opportunity.

Mantej, who also plays the dhol, a larger drum, with sticks, got a small tabla as a gift on his first birthday from his paternal uncle Lukbir Singh.

"Mantej plays the basic kherva taal and picked up the beat at a tender age. I want him to go with the flow and don’t want to force him in any way to practice," said Jaswinder.

But he does intend to send Mantej to Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain’s school of music in California, once he grows up.

But prior to that, Mantej has to pick up the teen taal, dadra, roopak, jhap and some more advanced Indian rhythms.

Little maestro

Mantej looks like a little maestro in his sherwani (knee length coat) and Sikh turban and nobody can doubt his high spirits as he plays the tabla, revelling in the attention he gets.

DID YOU KNOW?

According to music expert Gurpreet Chana the name ‘tabla’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘tabl’ which means drum