Arabinda Roy, is an unassuming down-to-earth individual.Sitar,Sarod,Surbahar & Tanpura manufacturers of very very high repute,their handmade musical instruments are a favourite with celebrity musicians.Name it and the list seems to be endless -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,Amir Khan,Vilayat Khan,Pt. Jog,Rai Chandra Boral,Ustad Abdul Ali Zafar khan,Nikhil Bandhopadhyay,Ajoy Chakraborty,Manna Dey,Pandit Ja
sraj,Pandit Maniram,Aktar Samani and Jahanara Nishi (Bangladesh) were regular visitors at Naskar's unassumed 8ft by 11ft workshop-cum-office on Ganga Prasad Mukherjee Road in Bhowanipore.They are not their valued customers.All India Radio Stations in Imphal,kohima,Port Blair and Doordarshan use their instruments.the Naskars often ship consignments abroad.No wonder, its is a craze among classy musicians to own a beautiful piece of instrument made by the Naskars.from tree to finished product their products boast superior quality with melodicious sound.Mastercraftsmen that they are,they learnt the nuances of their trade from their father Late Kishori Mohan Naskar.Say Arabinda,"For my father making a sitar was a work of art.he made each one with meticulous care." Pankaj Kumar Mullick used to visit the place often.while taking the delivery he would hear it once.So amazed would be at the quality of the sound produced that often tears would roll down his eyes,he would say "You will live for another 200 years". Late Kishori Mohan developed the smaller version of the all wood tanpura (drone) in the 1970s.He also made the Mohan Bina (an instrument between a sarod,sitar and surbahar), so named because the idea of this made-to-order instrument came from Radhika Mohan Mitra.Suggestions for making unusual instruments like the sursinger would often come from renowned artists . Elaborating on how a sitar is made,Arabinda says, " Teak wood is used for the danthi,Shisham wood for the knobs,Gourd for the tabli is imported from Australia.the purdeh or frets are made of Greman silver,20 of which are required for each instrument and it comes from Austria.Bronze and Steel strings come from Germany, Celluloid for the inlays from Japan.
