Shyamaprasad Roy (top) and Aloke ‘Paban’ Das at Badya Niketan, off Amherst Street

A musician forced to stop playing feels like a fish out of water. A few turn to another art form; most remain attached to the same, often in a different way. Shyamaprasad Roy belongs to the second category.

A student of tabla legends Keramatullah Khan and Radhakanta Nandy and also trained in the pakhwaj, Roy, now 54, pursued a professional career in the tabla into his 30s, till he had to stop playing because of a rare illness. He suffers from a type of jaundice that breaks down the red blood cells and thus restricts physical activity.

Coming from a family of musicians, Roy learnt the basics of the tabla and the pakhwaj from his grandfather before moving on to the tutelage of Nandy and Khan in his late teens. He played professionally for dhrupad, neo-classical and commercial projects, regularly accompanying the Calcutta choir from the late 70s.

It was at one such do in Mumbai with the choir in 1985 that Roy realised his health was failing.

“My tempo started dropping in the middle of tunes and I got cramps in my fingers. On my return to Calcutta, I was diagnosed with haemolytic jaundice,” recalls Roy. His world came crumbling down.

“When I was advised by doctors to stop, I was devastated. But at the same time, I planned to remain in touch with the sur and the kaani of the tabla; with musicians,” says Roy.

He founded Badya Niketan, tabla store, in the late 80 in Bowbazar. In 1993, the shop shifted to its current address — a 4’x13’ space at 1C Nilmoni Ganguli Lane, off Amherst Street.

The store owes its popularity to Roy’s mastery of making baanyas. Pandit Kumar Bose, Shubhankar Banerjee, Tanmoy Bose and Sanjoy Mukherjee are some of his best-known clients for the larger drum.

Soon after founding his Bowbazar shop, Roy chanced upon his sole instrument-maker. Aloke “Paban” Das from Gangnapur, near Ranaghat — the hub of tabla-makers in West Bengal — visited Roy’s shop with his brother-in-law, selling raw materials for crafting tablas. “Paban kept visiting my shop and I realised that he wasn’t meant for such small-scale trade; he didn’t have the personality to push his business. Since he was already making tablas, I offered him to come work with me,” recalls Roy.

“I knew Roybabu for a long time and was aware of his passion for the instrument. I didn’t think twice before accepting his offer,” smiles the soft-spoken Das.

It was a unique combination: a shop-owner who was once a professional player but had no knowledge then about the craft of tabla making and his craftsman who was just about an average maker.

“In the first couple of years, I lost close to Rs 30,000. But I didn’t give up. If playing the tabla is an art, the making of the instrument is a science. I delved deeper into the subject,” Roy recalls.

When he started off, the standard practice was making tablas that had diameters ranging between 4.25” and 4.5” and baanyas with diameters from 9.25” to 9.5”.

“Smaller-headed tablas and larger-headed baanyas didn’t really offer the best tonal possibilities, so I broke those standard practices. I instructed Paban to make tablas with head diameters ranging between 5.5” and 6.25”, while we brought down the head size for baanyas between 9” and 9.25”. Coupled together, these instruments offered a more balanced tone,” explains Roy, and promptly credits Paban as the man who really does it all.

Founded just two decades back, Badya Niketan has already carved out its own niche clientele for its baanyas. What’s special about these drums? Roy talks about five factors that make an exceptional baanya. First, every baanya here is made according to an individual player’s playing style and physical stature.

“Most right-handed tabla players have a weaker left hand, but the opposite isn’t true for left-handed players. So one needs to gauge the weight of the hand that plays the baanya and choose the skin accordingly. I ask all my clients to come and play so that I can gauge the weight of their hands,” says Roy.

Next comes the height of the individual from waist to shoulder. “The baanya sits closer to the lap, so one has to be comfortable playing it,” he explains. The third point is placing the gaab — the inner concentric layer made of rice glue and iron dust — “a little below the standard position”, so that the drum produces a uniform tone from all sides.

The volume of the gaab — another key point in making a good banya — depends on a player’s finger strength and weight of the hand. The last factor is the weight of the baanya, which has to be between 3.25 and 3.5kg for the standard copper variety. “This is the ideal weight for a baanya that helps the hand rest with ease,” he says.

The combination of artiste as owner and his sole craftsman is what makes Badya Niketan’s instrument unique.