This Dalit ends work days on a musical note
A. Ilangovan, a resident of the Dalit Colony at Vadapalanji near Madurai, has inherited both his day job and his passion. He wears two hats, continuing a family tradition in the fourth generation: clearing municipal waste by day and playing traditional music at dusk.
Mr. Ilangovan wears a khaki shirt and lungi at work, but by evening, transforms into a ‘thavil’ vidwan, complete with dhoti, silk shirt, sacred ash and red kumkum on forehead.
A school dropout, he was inspired by his father to play the famous musical instrument.
“I started playing music when I was 12 and learnt advanced lessons from my guru, Ramasamy, in Anna Nagar, Madurai,” says Mr. Ilangovan. He adopted the family’s twinned tradition – conservancy work – when his father, Arumugam, an employee of Madurai Corporation, died at 45. With that event, he inherited both family legacies: the job on compassionate grounds and the ‘thavil’. But he has no regrets. “Even today, I consider my job more important as my family has food on the table,” he says.
“I accept assignments only for auspicious occasions, that too when I am free. I am never absent from work,” he says.
His tryst with the ‘thavil’ has taken him places, including Mumbai, for Ganesh Chaturthi; Kulasekarapattinam, during Dasara; Tiruchendur and Chennai.
At 44, the conservancy worker is a grandfather, and wants the next generation to carry the musical tradition forward. His eight-year-old nephew, Lokesh, shows promise as his disciple.
