Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Where has Dhamail gone?

Earlier, I wrote few lines on the folk dance 'Dhamail', which was once very popular in Barak Valley of Assam. When I was a small kid, I enjoyed lots of dhamail performances at my village. On every other month, the ladies of the village used to gather and start performing dhamail. It was because they used to enjoy the dance form but now-a-days, the same ladies are rather seen gossiping abut the latest updates on soaps...well, this may be due to the development of villages...DTH penetrating the remote places of the country....By the way, I am not going to find out the reason here...

I just wanted to share the wonderful little moments where the whole family used to enjoy the performances of dhamail during 'Janmashtami', 'Marriages' and on many other occasions. As a child, I also performed with the elders and won gifts from relatives....I remember earning Rs 5 from the principal of my school when I was only 6 yrs. It was a favourite past time of the ladies after whole day's tiring work. Sometimes, they even need not any occasion to perform 'dhamail' as they used to enjoy matching the footsteps on the beautiful folk songs.

Earlier, Bengali marriages were incomplete without a 'dhamail' performance but these days, you need to hire the ladies of older generation to get a performance. Even then, you cannot expect to get that charm of 10 years back. People are not interested in folk song and dances like 'dhamail'. 'Munni Badnam Hui', 'Sheila Ki jawani' and 'Anarkali disco chali' has replaced 'dhamail' during marriage ceremonies...