His eyes bright with excitement, Manohar (Bobby) Gurung calls out the eight beat cycle, or adhithalam: "Tha-ki-ta-ki-ta-tha-ka-tha-ri-ki-ta-tha-ka". With his hands, he plays out this vocal percussion on his thighs as he would on the ghatam. Strong and rhythmical, it is one more percussion instrument to add to his repertoire.

Drums were Bobby's hobby since school days. He played the madal during bhajans at home at home or the tabla while his sister danced Bharatnatyam for the school. Gradually, he picked up the jembe, conga, damphu, almost anything with a skin framed over it. And if no drum was in sight, he'd play a beat on the table with his hands while his mother sang.

But Bobby's mother thought all this was taking him away from his studies. So, through college, he continued to play drums for functions or at home, never daring to dream he could take it up as a profession. Studing for an MBA in UK for a year in 1996, Bobby got bored with studies. "It became monotonous, there was no rhythm in it," he recalls, almost painfully. Bobby found places where he could listen to drums from all over the world and found London was a great place to perform. Soon Booby made friends who shared his passion and encouraged him to play. He even co-recorded an album, Bazaar in a Nutshell.

After seeing how music therapy could be used to help children with disabilities, Bobby decided he would be a drummer. Back in Kathmandu, he has performed with 1974AD and Sitapati. He learned the ghatam, an earthen pot used in classical Carnatic music in south India. When Pandit Vikku Vinayakam performed in Kathmandu in 2003, Bobby was in raptures and was invited to Chennai by the master. He trained intensely with Pandit Vikku and his son TV Umashankar and has returned to Nepal to spread the sound of the ghatam.

It is hard work: Bobby practices eight hours a day, fingers turning black and blue with practice. He has chosen to specialise in the Manamadrini ghatam which is fired with five elements and is harder than the Madrasi ghatam. "The harder you hit the ghatam, the more painful. The more painful, the more beautiful the sound," Bobby explains.
Bobby has introduced a drum circle every Tuesday at Moksh in Jawalakhel. He also hopes to do more music therapy. But his dream is to have a Carnatic music school in Nepal. For now, he just wants the ghatam to be known in Nepal.

"Our rhythm is already inside us," Bobby says. "Each of us has a heartbeat. I can feel that rhythm."
(Sraddha Basnyat)