Tabla Wala Australia Launches in Brisbane
Australia’s best tabla and tabla supplies are now available in Brisbane, as local business Tabla Wala Australia has launched in Oxley. Supplying top quality drums, skins and other accessories from leading Varanasi tabla maker Mohammad Anwar, Tabla Wala Australia’s Shen Flindell has been building the business from the ground up over the last 10 years.
“It’s been a long and difficult process, as Australia’s strict quarantine regulations can make importing drums and skins a bit of a lottery,” said Shen, also a well known classical tabla player in Brisbane. “I’ve spent a lot of time over the years with my tabla maker Anwar working on how to make good quality instruments which will be reliably cleared by Quarantine. Once he understood just how strict they can be, he worked very hard on getting his skins and straps meticulously clean. We also document the process of manufacture so that Quarantine staff are satisfied the products are safe.”
While studying the Benares style of classical tabla with his guru Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya since 1994, Shen also learnt a great deal from Anwar about repairing tabla. Nowadays many tabla players from Brisbane and around Australia have their tablas repaired by Shen or use his puris, including Dheeraj Shrestha, Ravi Singh, Joseph Nand, and Bobby Singh (Sydney).
“Anwar’s tabla puris are just so reliable. It’s a lot of work putting on a new tabla skin so you want to make sure that your parts are good quality before you start.”
Visits to Tabla Wala Australia are by appointment only: Contact Shen on 0415106428, email sales@tablawala.com.au, or visit www.tablawala.com.au for further information.