Today at the meeting of my Rotary club, I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Jagat Tarkas. Mr. Tarkas is the owner of a Sports Goods Shop on Wallajah Road. But his passion is for the art of Whistling. Due to circumstances of financial adversity, Jagat was forced to devote most of his youth and middle age to activities aimed at bringing his family up to an acceptable degree of financial stability. This meant that Jagat could not concentrate on singing, for which he had great aptitude and talent.
Later on in his life and especially after becoming a part of Alma Mater, he realized his loss, and decided to take up whistling as an alternate to singing. With continuous practice and efforts he is today an accomplished Whistler.
Jagat says there are many kinds of Whistling:
Outward Whistling- Where the air is sent out.
Inward Whistling- where sound is produced by sucking air in to the mouth. (Very Difficult)
Teeth Whistling- Where the air is sent out through the gaps between the teeth.
Puckering- Which is using whistling to imitate Bird Sounds.
Whistling is so popular in the States that people have quit jobs to rtake up whistling full time!
Jagat likens whistling to playing the flute. Longer and thinner flutes make shriller noise, while bigger and thicker ones have more bass.
Whistling can do all these; after all whistling is playing the flute without the bamboo! Flute is man made, while whistling uses the mouth which is a Gift of God!
Tharkaz went on to pl;ay a lot of Cine songs and melodies and held us enthralled for 45 minutes.
Tarkaz says he never knows what chemistry will happen when he whistles.
Our IPP Kishan Jain surprised us by whistling our Indian National Anthem in its entierity at the end of the meeting.
