Chendamelam Beats Shatter Gender Stereotypes

In what is seen as a welcome move, more and more girls are taking up percussion music of late. Chendamelam witnessed the presence of girls at the arts festival

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

OOJA, a higher secondary student of Mambaram Higher Secondary School, Kannur, was not into chendamelam till recently. Nevertheless, she mastered ilathalam in a few months and performed with elan at the arts fest. "She had some interest in theyyam and learnt ilathalam without difficulty. She used to practice regularly," said Seshadrinath, who led the team at the HSS chendamelam competition.

In what could be a welcome change, more and more girls are getting into percussion music, of late. "There's no need to discriminate between girls and boys when it comes to performance. If they are interested, they can perform," he feels. In addition to Pooja, who performed on Ilathalam, the team has one more girl, Ananya, who performed kuzhal. Other teammates are Abhiram, Abhinand, Adil and Sreenand.