The Chimta

Hello! It has been quite a while, hasn’t it. Apologies for the long absence. It started out due to a combination of the stress of the exams and Muneeb’s going to college, and then just extended itself. Now, however, things are looking up somewhat. I’ll try to keep things updating more regularly now – we are officially back.

After this long pause, it will be nostalgic to look back at a new instrument, just like we have before – so behold, the chimta!

Wait a second, this looks familiar … no. Just no. Please. We’re still suffering from the effects of the matka, why this now! Just ignore us. We’ll be hyperventilating somewhere in the corner here. Focus instead on this magnificent, elaborately constructed, musically harmonious – pair of tongs.

If you’ve managed to get over your perpetual phobia of cooking implements reused as music instruments (you don’t have one? How strange), you may be interested to know that the chimta is a traditional Punjabi folk instrument, which indeed has its origins in the humble tongs. Starting out as a cooking implement, it evolved with time into an instrument in its own right with the addition of small bells to its sides, much like the far better known tambourine. Often used as an accompaniment to folk and religious music, it is essential to keeping the beat with its rhythmic shaking. That said, it, much like the tanpura, is normally used to accompany singing, as used by the inimitable Arif Lohar, or other instruments like the dhol – never as a solo instrument.

The chimta as of now remains alive and well, much like its compatriot and frequent associate, the dhol. That said, with the encroaching loss of many folk traditions and music styles, it is doubtlessly under peril as well in the long term. However, at the very least we can reassure ourselves that it will never go extinct in one place – the kitchen!