Farmer's woodwork for violin & guitar

Sisher Rai plays a guitar which he made at his village in Gorubathan

Rajeev Ravidas, TT: This should sound like sweet music. Sisher Rai, a young farmer in the far-flung village of Upper Rai Gaon in Gorubathan, has been strumming notes of promise by making handmade violins and guitars at his home with technical knowledge sourced from the Internet.

Rai, who used to carve woods as a hobby, made his first stringed instrument in the shape of an electric guitar in 2012. "I thought of making a guitar in an iffy. I had been carving wood to make showpieces, and sometime in 2012, I decided to try my hand in making a guitar. I obtained technical knowledge about the guitar from the Internet," said the 23-year-old, who has studied up to Class XII.

Now, accessing Internet in his village, which is 6km from Gorubathan, about 80km from Kalimpong, requires loads of patience. With 3G facility yet to reach the area, Rai and his fellow villagers have to make do with 2G service. "It is not easy to access Internet because of poor network connectivity. We have to keep moving from one place to other searching for signals. I use my Android phone to access the Internet, which at best of times is very slow," said Rai.

Some of the musical instruments Sisher Rai carved out of wood.
Pictures by Kundan Yolmo 

However, neither the slow Internet connectivity nor the little time he gets to work on his passion seems to deter Rai. "Whenever I get the time, I engross myself in my craft. Hopefully, I will be able to open a manufacturing unit sometime in the future. That is my goal," he said. Rai's primary job is to help his father and siblings tend their field. The Rais grow among other things, oranges, ginger and betel in their field spread over four acres.

Rai uses locally available woods like teak, gokul (ailanthus grandis), saal and even betel to make the instruments. The metal parts for the instruments are bought from the market. "I don't make the bow of the violin since the fibre string is not readily available. Since violin is more an intricate instrument, it takes me about a month to make one. I have only made one guitar, but it should take about two weeks to make one," he said. Rai is presently working on an acoustic guitar.

Rai has sold three of the four violins he has made so far. He said his customers came to know about them through way-of-mouth advertisement. "The buyers were from Darjeeling and Sikkim. I sold my violins at Rs 7,000 a piece. The fourth one I will sell at Rs 9,000. The guitar will cost Rs 11,000," he said.

Unfortunately, Rai does not have the contact details of any of his customers, and it was not possible to vouch for the quality of the instruments. However, Rai, who used to play the rhythm guitar for the local village band Pyramid, played a small piece on both his guitar and violin, and they sounded good.