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The white marble plaque with small letters inscribed in black, at 18 Pycrofts Road,
Chennai, reads 'Zamindar of Chikkavaram'. You ring the bell and wait in anticipation. The
door opens gently and an elderly well-built bespectacled gentleman ushers you into the
hall. He beckons you to take your seat at a walnut coloured dining table cluttered with
bric-a-brac. You wait patiently, as your host cursorily clears a portion of the table
while giving clipped instructions in Telugu to the attending housemaid. All details
attended to, the man looks up, wipes his face with his hands and introduces himself.
Meet V.A.K.Ranga Rao, scion of a royal
family of Andhra Pradesh and a man of many dimensions - dancer, film critic and enthusiast and a connoisseur
of the fine arts - who is also the proud owner of the largest collection of 78 r.p.m.
records in the country. A mammoth 42,000 discs at last count! He jocularly claims that the
habit of collecting these 78 r.p.m. Discs started when he was a one-and-a-half-year-old
toddler, who could be stopped from wailing only on being handed a 78 r.p.m. record. More
seriously, he adds that the habit started quite innocuously without intent, as he
initially picked up the discs for the pleasure of listening to them. It slowly grew into a
passion and eventually started picking up every rare 78 r.p.m. he could lay his hands on.
The collection came about with some help from friends and mainly from purchasing them by
placing advertisements in the papers.
The collection now includes all the older
musical styles such as jazz, Ragtime, Western Classical, Hindustani, Carnatic, Folk and
even popular Film music. The tracks available are in 40 Indian and International languages
such as Tulu, Gari, Chinese, Burmese and Afghani among others. The artistes featuring in
the collection include a variety of popular performers and range from Enrico Caruso, M.S.
Subbulakshmi, K.L.Saigal and Bing Crosby to Pankaj Mullick. Most of the records in this
unique library are original first prints with the oldest record dating back to as early as
1904. Some of the very old and rare tracks in Ranga Rao's collection are not even
available with the original recording companies, who have approached him on several
occasions for copies of these priceless tracks. Needless to say, that this is the largest
archive of its kind in the country that could give some of the archives of recording
companies a run-for-their-money. It found mention in the Limca Book of Records and would
probably be a strong contender for the 'Guinness'. However, Ranga Rao, a lover of the fine
arts, is not into it for the accolades, but for the sheer love of music.
The recordings on these 78rpm discs include
speeches by Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini (in Italian), Mohammed Ali
Jinnah and Pandit Nehru. Other interesting tracks consist of readings of Shakespeare's
plays, jingles for products such as Gripewater, Anacin and Deluxe Cigarettes, therapeutic
records for correction of speech defects and the earliest ever recordings of 'Hypnosis'
made by the French magician Emile Coue. The first experiment with multiple recordings on
one side, known as 'Puzzle Records' also find place in Ranga Rao's collection. These
records were manufactured between the 1920s and the 1950s and had three songs recorded in
parallel on one side, instead of one-after-the-other. Other interesting 78s are the
plastic transparent records introduced during the 1960s and the first ever 78s that played
from the inside rim of the recording to the outer edge, which were manufactured by the
French company 'Pathe'. Also included are the single-sided vintage 78s of the 1904s which
were put in the market by India's first record company, then known as ' The Gramaphone and
Typewriter Co. Ltd.' With the logo of an angel lying on the turntable. This mascot was
later replaced by the 'Little Nipper' the dog listening to the now famous HMV label or
better known earlier as ' His Master's Voice'.
Being the proud owner of such a unique
collection of 78rpms, Ranga Rao is intensely possessive about his records and does not
allow anyone to handle the discs. Each 78rpm disc is cleaned and maintained by him by
simply wiping the records with a damp cloth. Ranga Rao's close friend, Mr.Appa Rao, an
Information Technology man, has managed to convince him of the need to preserve and
document such a priceless collection of music tracks (some originals of which are not even
available with the recording company) for posterity, with the use of modern technology
that is presently available. The duo have now embarked on an ambitious project, to
transfer the entire collection onto the digital compact discs after doctoring any
blemishes that may be existing in the original recordings. Ranga Rao hopes that this
labour of love for music, which is of immense cultural and historical value, will be a
source of priceless information to musicians, music lovers, musicologists and researchers
in the future. This venture is being sponsored by an international organization that is
interested in preserving world culture and heritage.
The seventy-odd years sit very lightly on
the energetic Ranga Rao's shoulders who informs you that he dances at certain temple
functions even to this day. A die-hard chennaiite, Ranga Rao has been a witness to the
changing face of this city, since the halcyon days of good old Madras right up to present
day Chennai with its modern facelift.
Rajat C. Kumar
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