Playing blindfolded

Musical feat

Ever seen anyone playing a rhythm pad or drums blindfolded? Surprised? Well, here is a man Babu V P, famously known as Graphite Babu.

He plays a rhythm pad which has tabla, dholak, santoor, veena, mridangam and the bass guitar.

From his childhood days, he was in a church’s choir team and so he was interested in playing music instruments. For the past 15 years, he has been performing in orchestras and for the past two years, he has started to play the drums and rhythm pad blindfolding himself.

He does not have a teacher and has learnt to play the tabla, dholak, mridangam and the drums all by himself. When asked on how does he manage to play blindfolded, he says, “I used to always look at the instruments and play them like any other normal person. And then one day, I suddenly thought why not play them with my eyes closed and was successful in doing so.”

He also wants to enter the Limca Book of Records by beating the drums continuously for around six hours blindfolded.

Currently, he is a part of a comedy troupe called Nage Habba.

He also gives background music to the troupe during its performance. In addition to giving the background music for around 300 shows of Nage Habba, Babu has also given the background music for Khiladigalu, a comedy on Zee Kannada.

He says, “I have the ability to drum at a very fast pace and I can also play any song. I practice every morning for at least two hours.”