Once again the roll of a drum can be heard in social occasions, specially in the rural areas of Odisha or for that matter Bengal and other states, like in the past when drums were an inseparable part of programmes.
Their sway was broken when electronic means of playing music made their appearance and band parties put the record players and amplifiers on.
R Ramamurthy, owner of a Berhampur-based band, said he was facing tough competititon from traditonal drum beaters because of court restrictions limiting sound levels.
"The number of shows has gone down. We had procured amplifiers before the imposition of legal restrictions on sound limits. We are performing under constant fear of police crackdown," he said.
Traditonal drummer Harihar Goud said playing the dholki is still a part time profession, but he is now in great demand, thanks to the court direction rstricting noise levels.
"We were getting hardly two to three orders for performance. Now it has tripled," he said.
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