How a Sarode is born

In the river Ganges in India, you might find logs of teak,mahogany,tunwood, etc buried in the mud. These may have been there for up to fifty years, curing and waiting to be turned into musical instruments. The Sarode starts it's life like this.
It is then cut into blocks that the instrument maker can hand carve into Sarodes, Sarangies, and Tabla's. The Sitar is made from a gord and the neck from smaller pieces of wood.
At Mr Hemen's shop in Calcutta, this old man hand carves the most beautiful Sarodes in India, the Stradivarius of Sarodes. All other's pale in comparison. I own one of these, given to me by my Sarode teacher in 1979, after ten years of practice on an old Hemen Sarode. The best ones are carved from one piece of wood but his Sarodes are all great, it's the playing of them that takes so much time. I have watched him in his shop carving away, while an assistant drills hole by hand for the pegs. The skin is from baby goats sacrificed at the Kali temple.