Sundays are when Lalliji usually cleans the room. He picks up an LP, dusts off the dirt that catches just his eyes, and is back to his usual, excited self, sharing his rare and huge collection of his music and other records with the prying eyes of strangers. And along flow stories that make each of them so rare.
Grab a pen and paper, and note down as I tell you,\'\' says Gurmukh Singh Lalli, probably one of Punjab\'s biggest archivists of LPs. Gurmukh Singh Lalli is now digitising his rare collection of music, speeches, et al.
It is a sizeably big room, with rough, but especially-designed cabinets for the LPs that Lalli has got made for his collection. And you know how much he values his collection from the fact that while there is no AC in his house in Naiwala village of Barnala district of Punjab, but for the LPs, there is.
Lalli\'s love for music was acquired from his father, who owned a radio in 1962, a big thing back then, but began collecting LPs when he realised they were on fast disappearing.
The collection encapsulates some rare records of music, film promos and speeches. There\'s one called the Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten, a 1905 record of ardas (prayer) made in England, 1971 record of IS Johar directed Jai Bangladesh\'s music, of Asa Singh Mastana, Parkash Kaur and Surinder Kaur...
\'\'I hope you are writing all this,\'\' Lalli interrupts to check. We nod, and he goes on, \'\'You know, someone was paying me Rs 25,000 for a record, but I never parted with it. It is priceless,\'\' he says. Well, this is when it comes to selling, Lalli knows what a record costs when he is buying it too. He once spent Rs 20,000 for buying one.
There are various versions to where was last year\'s hit song from Dabanng, Munni badnam hui was lifted. There is a Lalli angle to the controversy. HMV had taken out this record in 1971 in Razia Beghum\'s voice. The song was Launda badnam hua. \'\'And when last December this came to light, the music company came to me to get a copy of the record as only I had it,\'\' he says. But this is no great moment for Lalli. There are more records, rarer in existence, and value, only a connoisseur will know. That\'s why Lalli has to stress, again and again, that we write. Legendary Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulakshmi sung Gurbani in a 1973 record, master copies of Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Alla Rakha Khan, promo of Mother India and many other films.
But Gurmukh Singh Lalli isn\'t just a blind archivist of the times gone by; he knows he has to move on. That\'s why he is feeding all the music into the computer now. And he has entrusted his son, Bhavkaran Singh, \'\'a diploma in computer\'\' with the task of digitising his collection.
But Lalli doesn\'t stop here. He takes us to the other part of the room, and opens another almirah full of different types of record players\' needles, some of them rare.
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By Sarika Sharma (COURTESY :DAILY POST,NOV.,06,2011),
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