An English teacher in Taiwan to the first foreign woman drummer offering her performance at Tamil Nadu’s Dhyanalinga Shiva temple, Jenny’s journey may be unusual, but is “blissful”.
She travels with a group of “annas”, as she calls her co-drummers, matching them beat for beat with her drumsticks, which she refers to as “limbs”, on the Udol, the traditional Tamil drum.
“I came to Sadhanapada in 2022,” says Jenny, referring to the seven-month residential programme for inner transformation offered by Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, open to anyone from anywhere in the world. Offered as a free programme, it includes food and accommodation and draws tens of thousands of applicants from all over the world every year. A rigorous selection process shortlists a thousand participants who begin their Sadhanapada usually on Guru Purnima and end it on the following Mahashivaratri. Jenny was among the chosen few in 2022.
The damaru sound grabbed her, she says, during her Sadhanapada. “I don’t know why, I felt that I needed to learn drumming. I didn’t know where to go.”
Back home, Jenny grew up learning to play the piano which both in sound and performance is opposite to percussion instruments. She was introduced to the group of drummers at the Isha Yoga Center who took her under their tutelage.
The concept of music as an offering to the Lord — Kailaya Vathiyam — fascinated her. “The instruments should never touch the floor directly. They are always arranged neatly on a cloth and because they are going to teach us something, we treat them just like we treat our Guru — they are our Guru.”
As much as Jenny is fascinated with the tradition, her audience, too, is fascinated by her — a lanky frail-looking South Asian girl with a huge drum slung on her shoulder, beating with total abandon and perfectly in sync with her group. She says her involvement has been absolute from day one of her apprenticeship. The drummers first learn the beats on the floor. Their first contact with their instrument takes several months. Jenny recollects the first beat she learnt – arti. “We were practising with our hands. I was just tapping the floor. We practised many times. I suddenly looked down at the mat and wondered what happened to the mat. It was getting red and pink. So I looked at my hands and, I was like, “Wow! There is blood coming out from the center of my palm”. I was like Shiva. And it didn’t hurt. I just applied some vibhuti and continued. I didn’t feel the pain. So that was the beginning of my drumming journey,” she sums up with her tinkling laugh.
Jenny seems completely unfazed by the unfamiliarity of a new and complex culture. “A lot of times, I don’t feel my arms. People ask me, “Akka, you’re so skinny. You’re like a stick. How do you play for a long time? The drums are so heavy.” I say, “I don’t know. I don’t know who is playing. Is it me playing or Shiva playing?” Every time when I play the Kailasha Vadyam, I feel this sense of devotion. A lot of the times when Sadhguru talks about devotion, it’s a little abstract for me. But then every time I offer, I totally forget about myself. Forget about the pain. I don’t feel my arms. I don’t feel the body. And it’s just me and Shiva. And it’s very beautiful,” she says with a poignant smile.
Jenny doesn’t speak Tamil, although she says she understands a few words. She doesn’t know much about the culture of devotion that Tamil Nadu is famous for, but some part of it seems to have rubbed off on her as she trods barefoot on burning cobblestones, dutifully following the ‘annas’.
Her other profession offers the same opportunity, “but it happens very slowly”, she says. “You have to invest a lot of time in students to see slight transformation.”
“But once I pick up my drumsticks, I’m on,” she declares.
Jenny is passionate about taking this culture of musical offering to the Divine to the world. “I need to spread this consciousness to the world. Not just in India. I want people everywhere to really cherish this beautiful tradition and this connection with Lord Shiva. At least once in their lifetime, everyone should experience this kind of ecstasy,” she signs off, happily picking up her “limbs”, ready to transport and be transported to her spot of bliss.
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