Journalism of Courage
Imagine a row of cubicles lined with deep velvet chairs,headphones and computers. Imagine sitting down in front of a computer and selecting from over four lakh rare recordings and songs in Hindi,Marathi and English. This is what an evening at the Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Kaladalan is like.
The 20,000 sq ft edifice is set amid the picturesque Vasantrao Eknath Bagul Garden in Sahakarnagar. The building which houses an art gallery,a digital music library with 28 cubicles for listeners and a gramophone records museum is also a tribute to the legends of music. As you walk into the building,the staff will escort you to the amphitheatre where a short film on the life of Pandit Joshi plays on loop.
In the library section,one comes across portraits of over 30 legendary musicians such as Parveen Sultana,Sawai Gandharva and Ustad Amir Khan.
Browsing through the collection of music,the staff point out several rare recordings. This is from a live concert held overseas by MS Subbalakshmi, says one of them. Several artistes such as Kumar Gandharva,Sawai Gandharva,Gangubai Hangal,Hirabai Barodekar and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan are found on the playlists. The library software is specially designed by the Pune Municipal Corporation. And the tracks have been collected from all over the world through soft copies,records and recordings of live performances, says Ramesh Dev,who exhibits his personal gramophone and records collection on the top floor.
We heard old-school music lovers describe the good old days of music,when they could purchase vinyl records and play it on their magnificent record players. In fact,purists believe that no other medium produces as life-like,rich and fulfilling sound as a vinyl record. While vinyl records are analog recordings,CDs are digital recordings. Digital recordings capture pieces of analog recordings at certain rates and try to measure each piece that it captures with certain accuracy. Therefore,digital recordings dont capture the complete sound wave that it copies,which causes certain sounds to get changed or distorted, explains Dev. He has a collection of over 10,000 records and 70 gramophones most of which are displayed at Kaladalans gramophone records museum,which is named after late Suryakant Mandare,the legendary Marathi actor.
Dev says that over 7,000 records in the museum are rare and from his personal collection. Autographed records by Pandit Ravi Shankar,Hridaynath Mangeshkar and Begum Parvez Sultana,among others,are some of his most-prized possessions. He also plays records for audiophiles who are keen to listen to a record or two.
