JOIN USJunk is old and everything old is collectable’ believes Sharath Namburi, a passionate hoarder of antique objects.
A businessman by profession, he can be rightly called
curator of an unexplored museum, which is his house. While it is the vintage bicycles that welcome one at the gate, it is the breeze from the 100-year-old, 40 kilogram fan belonging to the Nizams of Hyderabad, which gives the rustic air as one enters the living room.
Watches, cameras, lanterns, tricycles, clapboards — ‘antiquity’ shouts from every corner of his house!
“This interest started as a boy. I used to collect stamps and coins. I collected cricket cards (from the 1990s) that came with the ‘Big Fun’ (chewing gum).”
“Then I went on to currencies and more authentic and antique objects. Since then, there has been no end to this passion,” says Sharath. It was his frequent business visits that helped him explore the various ‘scrap shops’, which added a lot of value to his invaluable assets.
He has a collection of 185 models of reel cameras, 780 mechanical watches, a 100- year-old-dressing table, a tricycle and a toy jeep that belonged to the Nizams, 40 types of kerosene lamps; the list goes on and on.
“I do not just collect them, but use them too. The kerosene lamps come in handy during the power cuts, the tricycle and the toy jeeps have been restored for my four-year-old son Tejal, the wall clocks still tick in all the rooms and I change my watch three times a day to keep them all going!” he explains. Ask him if his wife is supportive about his passion and he jokes, “I think she is forced to support me. She believes – if you can’t beat them, then it’s better to join them.”
His Sundays are spent winding the 780 mechanical watches and he says, “I am a HMT watch collector and since the factory is shut, a bunch of watch collectors have started a club and we meet once in two months.”
Among his camera collection, the reputation for being the oldest one goes to his 1885 Eastman Kodak, which has the first transparent photographic film. Apart from the antique gadgets, he owns a portable coffee mill — Philco coffee grinder.
“Till date, we use this at our house,” he details. It is his friends and scrap shop owners who have contributed largerly to his interests.
“I have a lot of friends in Hyderabad who also collects antique stuffs. There was a guy working at the Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, which is now run by the Taj, who helped me get the 100-year-old fan. This ceiling fan had once fallen off the roof and it was kept aside for 20 years without any repair. My friend informed me about this and the next morning I was on a train to Hyderabad,” he reminisces.
He visits the scrap shops during lunch breaks to look for more antique objects.
However, he goes back in time and says, “Initially I have lost a lot of money as I could not differentiate between authentic and fake objects. It was a learning experience. Now, I know what to collect from where.”
Some day, he hopes to open a walk-in museum to exhibit his collection to the next generation.
He is hopeful that his son will take forward this passion. The next priced possession he wants to own is the Penny-farthing bicycle, which has a large front wheel and a smaller rare wheel. “I wish I could insure all these collections,” he says as a parting shot.