This drummer beats for social causes

CHENNAI: As the drum beats fill Suman’s swanky recording studio, his face lights up. It is obvious that  music takes over him. While some believe music is all about passion, for some that passion is also about standing up for a social cause. The drummer aka poster boy for campaigns that aim at creating awareness about global warming is busy banging the tom-toms of his drum kit, warming up for his next gig.Everything seems almost usual, until you notice that his drums are actually worn-out plastic buckets. Welcome to Suman’s world, where he gives ‘garbage-music’ his own twist.He is no amateur. In fact, he has an enviable list of  achievements to his credit: a LIMCA record in 2009 for playing the drums non-stop for Exnora’s Lights Out campaign. This year too was no different. He was a steady support to Exnora International’s ‘Fight global warming in your home’ campaign like always. On the whole, he has performed 50 programmes for the cause. Moreover, the album has photos of him with the who’s who of the music world, from ace music directors Yuvan Shankar Raja and Deva to critically acclaimed playback singers like Janaki, speak volumes about the reach of his music.“I have been doing stage shows since I was three years old. So, I don’t even know what stage fright is,” says the 13-year-old with a sheepish grin. What’s more, this little genius also has the knack for creating musical instruments using junk. He has designed percussion instruments by filling talcum powder boxes and aluminum tin cans with green gram seeds. A couple of Pepsi bottles filled with increasing volumes of water and voila! He has another percussion instrument in his hand.“He personally selected the plastic buckets for the drum set by hearing the tone and finally we fixed the tones by applying rubber material over some of the buckets to correct the tone variation and he created the plastic drum-kit all by himself,” says K Mahendran, Suman’s proud father.Well, it doesn’t take time to figure out that music runs in the family. Suman’s father is a guitarist, while his brother, Subash, plays the keyboard and his sister, Subashree, is fond of singing. Throw a question about forming a family band and Suman says he might actually consider that option. Well, till then drumming up support for social causes will keep him occupied.