Often, we don't know how to get these instruments back in working order. We usually take them to some well-known shop or two, and if they are not able to help, we bring them back and jettison them to the back of a less used cupboard. Only the next round of spring cleaning brings them back to attention. Concert artistes are not above hobbyists in this regard. If they find, a few days before a performance, that the strings or keys are broken, they begin a mad campaign to get the instrument in order.
Old instruments are dear.
No artiste likes to pick up a new, untried instrument just before a concert. Hearteningly, some shops specialise in the repair of old instruments. The Mylapore touch Mathala Narayanan Street in Mylapore, Chennai, houses many such shops, small and big. A small shop, owned by Varadan, specialises in the repair of mridangams. He gets the skin of buffalo, goat and deer from Perambur, the area in Chennai known for its wholesale leather shops.