Society of Indian Record Collectors aims to collect old gramophone records and preserve these for future generations

Ever thought gramophones would be a hit with anyone in 2011? A big surprise awaits you if you thought otherwise. The Society of Indian Record Collectors (SIRC) is one such community that shares a passion of collecting gramophone records.

A meeting of record collectors and music lovers convened in 1990 paved the way to the birth of the society.

Suresh Chandvankar, founder of the society and a research scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, said, "We are engaged in preserving these treasures for posterity."

When asked where he got the inspiration from to collect the discs, he said, "It was based on the need to preserve old records and music contained in them.u00a0 I knew friends, who had similar collections. So we decided to come together."

The society has units in major cities of Maharashtra and organises guided listening sessions on variety of topics. It already has more than 250 members.

Chandvankar started collecting these discs since his school days and now has a collection of over 5,000 discs; the oldest being songs of Miss Gauhar Jan of Calcutta recorded in 1902.

Though their community has not been listed in any record book, that doesn't deter the members from going that extra mile to share and voice their love for music.

In fact, one their members, Nikhil Raleraskar had a chance of showcasing his record collection at an exhibition at the Balgandharva Rangmandir recently. "It was an amazing experience, especially when you have something so old yet remembered by everyone. I had the chance of speaking to many people and got to share their views on music."

Apart from this, Chandvankar has created his own page titled "Indian Gramophone Records" which looks at the Indian gramophone industry as well as references of some very old records. "We want to digitize old discs, record covers, jackets and labels. This might be useful for future generations and researchers. Not only this, it could be a seeding for 'National Sound Archive of India' too," said Chandvankar.

Nandu Kulkarni, a LIC officer, has a love for old records and also has a collection of old gramophones.

"It is my most favourite hobby to go to Juna Bazar and ask for any old records available," he said. Kulkarni has a huge collection over 3,000 records, which include Hindi film songs, Marathi non-filmy songs and classical records. "I have a good collection of K L Saigal's records which are my favourites," he said.