Sixty-six-year-old Sohan Raj’s house has a room to which access is restricted; even his children are not allowed inside without permission. A peep into the room justifies his actions as he has over a dozen antique musical instruments that are about seven decades old.
Mr Raj, who runs a medical store, says that his love for music was inherited from his father. “We had a medical shop. We used to hear music from a nearby house all the time. People there would always be playing melodious songs. There was no life for us without music,” he explains.
His room will take you back to the era of black and white films. The most striking instrument is the gramophone, which is about 75 years old. Mr Raj places a 78 RPM disc of Kannada movie ‘School Master’ on the instrument, takes out a needle, places it on the disc and winds up the gramophone, a conical shaped instrument which runs without electricity. With seconds, he is immersed in the song ‘Swami Devane Loka Paalane’.
“Listen to the quality of the music. These songs bring freshness. You can listen to them for hours,” he says.
Mr Raj owns four gramophones, six tape recorders, three wall radios, four transistor radios and 300 audio cassettes, 200 records and 80 tapes.
While most of his collection is inherited from his father, some were bought from friends who often come to his house and spend hours listening to music. School students too make trips to look at his collection.
Mr Raj says that none of his instruments have required major repairs. “I am very careful with all my instruments, as spare parts are not available. Sometimes, I carry out minor repairs at home.”
He is completely dismissive of the new technology and manner in which songs are composed. “There was a charm in the old method of making music, which is not there in CDs and DVDs,” he says.
But his 12-year-old granddaughter Divya V. is a staunch advocate of new technology. “When we can play music on the computer with the click of a mouse, why would we use these instruments? It is better if all these items are in a museum,” she says.
Undeterred, Mr Raj who has been expanding his collection. In keeping with the nostalgia feel of the room, he has been collecting old telephones, mobile phones as well as photographs of the freedom struggle.
