Agra :
Dinesh Shandilya, now 76, made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for designing and playing a five-feet long and 3.5 inch diameter width flute made of plastic pipe way back in 1996, but his passion for crafting the wind instrument in new shapes and sizes has not diminished even a bit over the years.
After a lot of experiments in the flute design, his latest creation is a 25-feet long flute with one inch diameter which he plays with ease. His name has also been recorded in Limca Book of Records for playing the smallest flute, just 4.5 inches long, in 2000.
For this engineer-turned-musician, the inspiration for playing flutes of various lengths came from his eagerness to play some difficult ‘ragas’. He says he could not find bamboo of desired quality and diameter even after extensive search, after which he used PVC pipes to make his longest flute to enter the Guinness Book of World Records.
What’s more, he used sorrow as a motivating force to come up with something unique and beautiful. “I suffered from nervous breakdown and depression after the death of my younger brother and later, my wife. No therapy could cure me. I, at last, got solace in Vrindavan, where I heard devotional music in temples and flute recitals of Hari Prasad Chaurasia which helped me recover from illness,” says Shandilya.
Grief-stricken, he found solace in soul-stirring flute recitals, which led him to create something which has likely lent new dimensions in the mellowness and depth of notes in the flute.
Over the years, he has made several flutes of bamboo and fibre in sizes ranging from 9 inches to 25 feet, enabling him to produce notes of around 6 to 6.5 octaves. He has specially made bass flutes of different diameters so as to unfold elaborate rendition of profound and classical melodies of ragas like darbari, marwa, pooriya etc.
In the process, he says he has devised a new technique of finger manipulation suitable for playing different sizes of flute.
“Playing a flute is not easy, one needs to have strong lungs to start with. This can be achieved with practice. I spend more than four-five hours daily practicing the instrument. While designing new types of flutes, one has to keep in mind the quality of bamboo. It has to be lightweight and not have knots. The best bamboo is found in Assam,” he says.
In September 2014, Shandilya was conferred doctorate in record breaking ‘honoris causa’ for largest and smallest flute by the World Records University. His feats have been recorded several times by India Book of Records and Limca Book of Records since 1996.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Agra / by Aditya Dev, TNN / October 31st, 2014