For 18-year-old Mohammad Asif, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, August is the month to travel to Mumbai and earn a livelihood by creating beautiful percussion instruments like drums or dholaks.
Asif and 15 others with the same skill set have taken shelter under the Rajnouli Bridge at Bhiwandi Bypass Road and create drums of different sizes. Their arrival marks the onset of the festive season wherein these drums are popular among revellers.
This group, which also has senior citizens, has been visiting the city for decades and used to occupy the APMC Market in Bail Bazaar in Kalyan.
Asif said, “The market had a lot of filth from the rotten vegetables, thus we decided to change places. This is also a highway, so there are people from different cities who pass by the junction. They stop to look at the drums and many even buy them from us. The earnings from the sale are sent to our family in the village.”
The group from Lucknow makes hundreds of drums and sells them for anywhere between ₹100 and ₹700, depending on the sizes and materials used. There are two types of drums created – one of card boards and the other of wood. The group, however, claimed that the demand for the drums has dipped recently with very few people buying it for their children, or for some religious programmes and celebrations.
“The sale has dipped more since the pandemic. Earlier, we used to sell at least 200-300 drums. Now, it has come down to 70-80 or maximum 100. On a day, hardly two or three drums are sold. With the business not doing good, we cannot opt for a rental place for the work,” said Asif.
After the festive season is over, the group shifts to Pune city to continue the business there.
“The drums are made of materials that we bring from our native. Once we receive all the materials here, we start making the drums. They are kept under the bridge for sale. We also roam across cities, especially in rural areas to sell them. Our drums are sold in Mumbai, Thane, Kalwa, Kalyan, Dombivli and Ulhasnagar,” said Nazim Ali, 28, another craftsman who travels from one city to another to sell the drums.
