A glimpse into the past

Some people may think collecting old, rusted and unfashionable gadgets is a waste of time. However, it has been a hobby and a passion for Sohanraj Pipada, a resident of Okalipuram.

His collection boasts of gadgets, which are as old as seventy, and have been carefully tended and maintained by Sohanraj. “It was my father who started collecting these gadgets when he was young and I started developing an interest in them when I was very young. When I was seven, I made a radio and soon started collecting gadgets and adding to the collection,” he informs.

Maintaining them is not an easy job, Sohanraj makes sure that the gadgets are cleaned and preserved properly. “All these gadgets have been kept in a separate room in my house, I clean everything on my own.

They have to be maintained well or else they might stop working. It is very difficult to find a mechanic who can mend these gadgets as they are quite old. I play and use these gadgets twice a week as they might not function if they are not used. I also clean them once in seven days. It is time consuming but not as difficult as it might appear,” he adds.

The oldest gadget in his possession is a 75-year-old HMV gramophone and though tough to maintain, he feels it steals the show. “Many neighbours and relatives ask me to show them my collection and the first thing I show them is the gramophone.

My father had purchased it from someone and he made sure that it is maintained well. I have tried my best to preserve it. I also have a 40-year-old spool recorder, I bought it from someone who was discarding it,” he notes.

Currently, he has more than 20 such gadgets and all of them have interesting anecdotes attached to them. While some of them have been gifted by friends who know of his passion for antique gadgets, many others have been bought from people.

“A while back, I had booked an old telephone, which was almost 45-years-old. Soon after, I was informed that one of my friends was selling an old telephone. I bought the other one and now, I have two such telephones and it has been a challenge to not only maintain them but also keep them functional,” he adds.

Ask him how he makes time to collect these gadgets and he explains that it is his passion that drives him to get some time off from his day-to-day work. “I am a businessman and hence there is no ten-to-five routine that I adhere to. There have been days when I have been extremely busy, but I have never failed to take sometime out from my schedule,” he adds.

Along with some antique phones, he also has a couple of radios, a forty-year-old record, a seventy-year-old Kenwood gramophone and an old camera.

His penchant for collecting old gadgets has also extended to the car that he drives. His 53-year-old Ambassador is one of his prized possessions and he adds that it can give any new car a run for the money. Some of the gadgets that he owns are quite magnificent to look at and reflect the craftsmanship and designs of the past. The room housing these gadgets makes one quite nostalgic and is like a glimpse into the past.

“There is something in these old gadgets that has attracted me and I feel that the kind of workmanship and technical genius involved in making these gadgets is great. That is one of the reasons why they are functional even after so many years. This has always intrigued me and it was this curiosity to know the technique used in these gadgets that mademe want to collect and own more and more of them. Most gadgets made now become useless after a couple of years,” he says.

“My family has been living in Bangalore for many years now and hence I have a big circle of friends. They have often helped me and given me contacts of people, who own old gadgets, and want to sell these off to someone. My family has been very co-operative and has supported me in pursuing my hobby. Though people often laugh at my hobby and call it madness, it does not deter me from pursuing it. I have stopped collecting now and devote time to maintaining and preserving these gadgets,” he sums up.