Wedding bands go silent amid 50-member attendance cap
BATHINDA: Bagpipe player Mohan Pandey is a worried man as his team has not received any order to play musical instruments at wedding functions for the past two months. His family of five could soon face problems of even arranging food, with savings rapidly exhausting.
A brass band team comprises 15-20 persons including musicians, mare handler and those carrying lights with barat or wedding procession. A bagpipe band has nine musicians, including trumpet players and a ring leader.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, marriages are now a low-key affair where only a few close family members remain present and the Center stipulating the gathering to be of less than 50 persons.
Pandey’s team head Balbir Singh said,” Our band used to get orders from Malwa region and we often visited Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to play instruments at weddings. Every year, between AprilJuly, we got at least 15 invitations a month. This year, however, people want us to return money taken in advance. We are helpless.”
Singh, who is also the chairperson of the Union of Punjab Bagpipers, said there are about 100 bands in the state and traditionally the postwheat-harvesting season April onwards was when a sizeable section of the rural population solemnised marriages.“More than 20,000 musicians, including the dholis, members of bagpipe and brass bands are battling for livelihood,” he said.
Another musician Avtar Singh said, “Bagpipers and brass bands are usually in high demand for Shobha Yatras during gurpurbs and Hindu religious occasions. We were also regularly invited by Rajasthani customers for Gangaur festival and Jain festivals. This year, for weeks, there has been no customer call.”
For a small entrepreneur like Pappu at Bathinda’s Sirki Bazar locality, the lockdown has come as a blow to his business as well. “I have to sell one of my four mares as no one is placing orders for chariot or mare for marriages. Per day diet expense for a mare is Rs 500 and I am unable to meet it without any income. Band players should be exempted from the restriction of 50 guests at weddings,” he said.