Traditional musical instruments on display at the Akashvani. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, July 23: Revisiting the bygone days is always special and if that happens with an institution like the Akashvani then nostalgia obviously is mingled with history.

At the three-day exhibition, which began here yesterday to commemorate the golden jubilee of the Akashvani, Ranchi centre, the displayed items include antique radio sets, rare photographs, old microphones, traditional ancient musical instruments and several other memorabilia reminding visitors of the time when radio ruled the world of entertainment.

In his inaugural speech Ranchi University vice-chancellor A.A. Khan said: “It is a matter of immense pride for all of us that the centre has successfully completed five decades.”

From the first contract given by the station to Shravan Kumar Goswami — a septuagenarian who now writes columns on Ranchi — in 1957, to photographs of artistes like Raghunath Prassan (shehnai), Awadh K. Tripathi (tabla), Narayan Prasad Jahanabadi among many others were major attraction of the display.

A photograph of July 27, 1957, — the day when the Ranchi centre was set up — showing then Bihar Governor Zakir Hussein, flanked by B.B. Keskar (then information and broadcasting minister) and Jagdish C. Mathur (first station director) is indeed worth looking at.

One would be amazed to know that information was a commodity even at that time. The first licence which Akashvani, Ranchi, procured in the ’60s well depicts this.

Also there is a great collection of music records, including songs by Panna Lal Ghosh, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, Pandit Maniram and Badi Moti Bai, besides 25,000 other songs preserved by the archive section of the Akashvani, Ranchi, centre.