Kamol Sarker enchants people with his magic tunes of bamboo flute

JHENIDAH,  Sept 7: Kamol Chandra Sarker, 71, a pipe-maker and piper-man of Kumiradah village under Shailkupa upazila in Jhenidah is playing bamboo flute and enchanting people at home and abroad with the sweet cadence of his musical instrument.
Kamol started to learn how to play an oblique pipe when he was merely 15 years old. from his master Juron Thakur of Magura district. Then he had been learning how to make bamboo flutes for six months from Nironjon Kumar Sarker at Bhatpara area in Kolkata during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.
The war being over, Kamol began to earn his livelihood by selling pipes made of dried bamboos in bazaars and fairs as he faced acute economic hardship. This adept craftsman has been passing 56 years of his life by making and playing flutes of different scales perfectly adjusted with the tunes of harmoniums. Besides, he is supplying bamboo pipes to various shops and harmonium showrooms at wholesale rates now.
National Crafts Council of Bangladesh which has been taking an effort to encourage craftsmen and revive the country's traditional craftsmanship since 1989, honoured Kamol Chandra Sarker along with three other master craftsmen for their contributions to different fields of indigenous craftsmanship at an award-giving ceremony titled "The Master Crafts-persons Award 1417."
The award winners each received a cash prize of Tk 50,000 along with a crest and a certificate on the occasion. Every winner also got a quality wall-mat and a monogram there. And Director of Bengal Foundation gave them flower tubs.
In 2013 Kamol Sarker was selected among 38 master artisans from 38 fields to be sent to Japan by National Crafts Council of Bangladesh.
He spent one and a half month in the foreign land making a total of 150 pipes from white bamboo and playing flutes at different places there.
Kamol Babu said that Lalongeeti, Palligeeti, Bhatialli and some songs of Kazi Nazrul, are sung with tunes of bamboo pipe, which make them most appealing to the enjoyers.
Among 38 master craftsmen of different fields, Kamol Chandra Sarker attended a 3-day craftsmanship fair held at the Bengal Gallery in Dhaka organised by Bengal Foundation   Last month. His bamboo pipes were kept in one of the 38 stalls installed there for display and sale.
This septuagenarian magician of tunes who have been struggling through poverty throughout his life added, "If I got any government privilege permanently, I could lead the rest of my life happily."