Mukesh Dhiman passed away on 11 October, aged 69. His son Saurabh Dhiman told SBS Hindi over the phone from his home in Rishikesh - a city in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, that his father had a heart attack.
Highlights:
- 69-year-old didgeridoo maker Mukesh Dhiman passed away on 11 October.
- He was arguably India's only didgeridoo maker.
- Mukesh Dhiman learned to make this Aboriginal Australian instrument from an Australian man.
According to the aboriginalart.com.au, "The didjiri-du.. is a long hollow tube, often a tree root about 5 feet long, slightly curved at the lower end.
"The musician squats on the ground, resting his instrument on the earth. He fits his mouth into the straight or upper end and blows down it in a curious fashion. He produces an intermittent drone."
Source: facebook.com/mukesh.jungle.vibes
Listen to Mukesh Dhiman's story with the sounds of the Didgeridoo:
Mukesh Dhiman was a world-famous didgeridoo maker, an instrument he loved to play too. How did a carpenter with a small furniture shop in Rishikesh come to embrace the Australian Aboriginal instrument which is considered as one of the world's oldest musical instruments?
Saurabh Dhiman says an Australian tourist introduced him to didgeridoo.
"I don't remember the year, but my father learned about didgeridoo from an Australian tourist. He taught him how to play it. And then my father learned how to make it," says Mr Dhiman, who himself makes the instrument.
Dhiman's story of falling in love with an Australian Aboriginal instrument is quite famous though, as he had told this in many media interviews.
Mukesh had a special connection with the moon. Tonight is the first full moon since he leave his body. A very powerful... Posted by Jungle Vibes - Didgeridoowala on Saturday, 31 October 2020
It happened on an ordinary day in 1980 when Mukesh Dhiman was working on a construction site when an Australian man, Alistair Bullet, approached him with an unusual request. He wanted him to help in making something.
Mr Bullet wanted to Make a didgeridoo.
"I had no clue what it was all about, but I joined him," Mr Dhiman had told the Times of India in 2015.
"It took us two weeks to make a didgeridoo," said Mr Dhiman adding that it took him some time to learn the skill of tuning this foreign instrument.
However, he was a quick learner and made one by himself soon, which was bought by a British man.
Source: facebook.com/mukesh.jungle.vibes
"After that, I never looked back," he told the Times of India.
It was not just an instrument for him, says his son Saurabh Dhiman.
"He loved playing it. He taught making it to many others especially hundreds of Israelis who loved him and respected him as a God," says Saurabh Dhiman.
Mukesh Dhiman had pupils from Israel and many countries in Europe.
The city of Rishikesh is popular amongst spiritual international tourists and Mukesh Dhiman's workshop 'Jungle Vibes' became a must-do tourist spot itself.
Tourists from different parts of the world travel to Jungle Vibes to learn making didgeridoo.
Always keep your tools sharp and your heart open.
However, Mukesh Dhiman never visited Australia, the land of didgeridoo.
"Once he got a chance, but he refused," says Saurabh Dhiman, "He would not leave Rishikesh for anywhere. He used to say I am a son of Ganga Maa (Mother Ganges) and would never leave its bank."
Music knows no language, but apparently, it knows how to fly past borders. Otherwise how a simple carpenter in the forests of Himalayas could not have spent his life loving an Australian aboriginal instrument.
"I cannot live if I don't play the didgeridoo before going to bed," Mukesh Dhiman used to say.
"He used to play the didgeridoo every night," reveals Saurabh Dhiman who vows to carry his father's legacy along with his brother Gaurav Dhiman.
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