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Photos by Soumyajit Dey
Walking down Shyam Mitra Lane in Shyambazar, one may suddenly hear Angur Bala singing, or maybe music from the early 1900s. It is not that the passer-by has fallen into a wormhole, it’s just that Goutam Chattopadhyay lives there.
Chattopadhyay, now 67, inherited his obsession over memorabilia from his father, Sushil Kumar Chatterjee, endearingly called Noku Babu.
In an unassuming lane of north Kolkata, at 7B, Shyam Mitra Lane, is the house of Chattopadhyay.
“I started collecting historical artefacts from 1981. That was 45 years ago,” began Chattopadhyay. There are three rooms filled to the brim with history. It takes a minute to adjust one’s eyes to what the rooms actually contain. The collection features lamps from horse carriages of the 1600s to lighters, telephones, typewriters, gramophones, binoculars, to the earliest model of a ventilator for medical support.
“I do not just collect things, I restore them to their full glory. For me, it is like taking care of the elderly. I always advise youngsters to take care of old equipment, to show them the respect they deserve. There are times when I think to myself, why am I doing this? But, if I stay away from history for even a bit, I start feeling squeamish, as if a part of me is missing,” said Chattopadhyay.
Opening a gramophone case, and winding up the machine to play a vinyl record of Angur Bala, Chattopadhyay lamented how modern music does not hit the spot for him.
“You can feel the ambience in which this was recorded, even the grains feel like they belong with the song,” added Chottopadhyay. My Kolkata also had the chance to listen to a record of Rabindranath Tagore recite Birpurush in his own voice, and original tracks from Sound of Music, the 1965 film.
“I mainly restore mechanical things, because I find life in them,” said Chattopadhyay. Vehemently shaking his head, the collector mentions how modern gadgets do not come close to the perfection of the old masters. “Previously people cared about their craft, thus each piece was a design from the soul. Now every product is driven by profit, thus there is no personal touch,” added Chattopadhyay.
Many colleges and universities of Kolkata have visited this personal museum to educate their students, yet Chattopadhyay sees the future of this collection as a mystery.
“It is often the case that the present generation does not care for the collection. Someone from outside takes care of such collections with a greater zeal. Thus, I do not think of legacy that much. It is a surprise I would like to get,” said Chattopadhyay.
Talking about the collection, Chattopadhyay said, “I find similarities between old-age homes and the scrapes people throw away thinking they are of no use. Modern times dictate throwing away what one thinks is useless. I beg to differ. These ‘scraps’ are the building blocks for modern technology, if it wasn’t for such gadgets, we would not have modern technology today,” he said.
“Staying among these things makes me return back to my childhood, my growing years. I can smell that history, I can imbibe that time,” he added.
Chattopadhyay has never thought of selling any of his collection.
“Selling even one of these things is like selling off a family member. Whenever someone approaches me with an offer to buy, I say to them give me the old things you have. I would never even think of selling something from this collection,” said Chattopadhyay, as the legacy started by Noku Babu, teeters on.
