IWA boasts of 400+ whistling members - both male & female, ranging from ages 10 to 75 years.

‘phhhh…phhhh’ that’s the sound of a whistle that most of us can get out. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the members of the Indian Whistlers Association. It was one of the ‘see it to believe it’ moments, or rather a hear it to believe it moment. On 14^th February the members of IWA performed at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival as a tribute to the great Mohd. Rafi. They kept the huge audience enthralled with their impeccable whistling for well over an hour!

The kurta clad, well shaven, smart members of IWA belonged to various different fields. Some were doctors, some senior managers in MNCs, some owned their own businesses, etc. But they all had one thing in common. They could whistle any tune to perfection. The members showed no signs of inhibition in donning a colourful ‘topi’ while performing a qawali, ‘parda hain parda’.

You would question the variety that a group of whistlers can probably bring to the stage. But the audience was in for a surprise. The performance ranged from solo whistling to duets and even to a symphony like effect brought about by the whole group. One of the youngest performers on stage was Sweta, all the way from Chennai. She is a trained classical singer and a classical dancer. She displayed her art in unique style when she performed a dance and whistled at the same time on ‘Madhuban mein radhika nache re’. As versatile as Rafi sahib himself, the performance included romantic numbers, classical numbers and even qawalis.

IWA has entered the LIMCA Book of Records 2009 with 28 whistlers from all over India whistling "Saare Jahan Se Accha..." in unison

At the end of their performance, the IWA in order to promote whistling as an art held a small competition. They would whistle a tune and the audience was to respond by whistling the paragraph of the song. The audience showed tremendous enthusiasm but no one could elicit a whistle half as clear and accurate as the members of the association.

The roar of the applause at the end of the show depicted that the audience understood and appreciated the rare talent that these members had displayed and that they were in fact willing to accept whistling as an art form.

Do visit http://www.whistleindia.org/ for more info on IWA.

Article & Images courtesy: Nikunj Bhaiya