This Mangaluru museum brings back glory of bygone era

From the traditional ‘village kitchen’ to traditional farm implements, old watches, musical instruments, radio, clocks... All find prominence in this museum at Jeppu.

The St Antony’s Home Museum is set up at the orphanage St Antony Ashram in Jeppu. An old printing machine, huge paintings on St Antony, along with an old pulpit, welcome visitors stepping inside an old house that hosts the museum.

The idea of setting up a museum was conceived by Fr Onil D’Souza, director of St Antony Ashram. Fr Onil told DH that the house in which the museum was located is also about 100 years old.

John V Tauro, who had served in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and with the Kuwait government, had collected all the antiques in his unique home museum at Shivabhagh. John had collected these valuable artifacts during his visits to different countries across the world. “I try to collect memorabilia from each country and try to preserve them for future generations,” he adds with a smile.

He donated his collections to the museum, which was set up in an Ashram in September 2020. “After the museum was set up, people from in and around Mangaluru began contributing antiques in their possession to the Ashram museum,” says Fr Onil and adds that there are plans to develop the museum by including more antiques to the vast collection.

An old telephone, not older than 80 years, iron boxes, different kinds of clocks, watches, including an Arabic watch, cameras and other such articles, are arranged in one room. The museum has over 5,000 rare artifacts. “Earlier, the Ashram used to get many visitors, including students from different schools, on a daily basis. But due to Covid-19, the number of visitors has dropped,” says Fr Onil.

Musical instruments

The museum has a wide range of musical instruments, including harmonium and mandolin. Old transistors and a vintage gramophone with treasured LP (long play) records also find a place in the museum. There is a table dedicated to pens that will take you back in time. Picking one of the ink pens, John said, it was the first pen he used in the school.

Also displayed on the walls are pictures of vintage and modern cars. Even key chains, cigarette lighters, old mobile phones, pager, projector, fax machine, candle stands of the bygone era, weighing scale, chemical weapon face mask used by the people during the Iraq war, lantern used in horse-carts, toys and contemporary art are displayed in the museum.

Farm equipment

A room in the museum is dedicated to farm equipment and other related antiques that were used by people in the coastal area. The metallic traditional game — chennemane rests on the floor. The ‘korambu,’ ‘muttale,’ ‘kalasha,’ ‘akki mudi,’ ‘kudupu,’ wooden plough, preservative pots, well water puller, grocery scaling machine, postal scaling machine, wooden masala container, are sure to leave visitors nostalgic. Another room in the museum dedicated to ‘village kitchen’, has different types of local traditional implements and utensils made of wood, copper, brass, bronze and cane — that were in vogue in the past.

To create awareness on the Covid-19 pandemic and the precautionary measures, a PPE kit, masks and gloves have also been placed in the museum.

In keeping with old customs, vegetables like sambar cucumber, ash gourd hang from the ceiling as in past. In addition, the museum has an entire set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the National Geographic books.

A modified rickshaw of John Tauro, Bajaj Chetak 1992 model, Yezdi 2 stroke of 1987 model, belonging to Sanjay and self-driven gravity vehicle of John D’Souza, installed outside, grabs the attention of the visitors.