KOCHI: In a room stacked with 72 antique tape recorder sets, around 600 cassette tapes, and 300 cameras, Arun Mohan introduces me to his small world filled with yesteryear treasures. His love for collectables is crystal clear like the melody playing from the huge, loud radio in his home, ‘Wild Breeze’. While Yesudas’ melodious voice croons in the background, Arun explains his journey with antiques.
“It started with cameras. I began collecting them around 10 years ago. I used to dabble in short films and photography a lot back then, a small phase,” he laughs. “Right now my main collection is these tape recorders,” the 36-year-old gestures around the tightly packed room.
Arun’s collecting frenzy for tape recorders began with a gift. For his wife’s birthday in 2022, he gifted her an RK 565D National Panasonic tape recorder, a 1975 model. “She liked the gift very much. In the evenings, we played Hindi melodies on the tape. After hearing a song on the tape recorder, our mood turned nostalgic. As 90’s kids, we were born and brought up hearing the classics using old technology. That moment was when the craze for collecting them truly began,” he explains.
Arun, an accountant at Conduent at Infopark, only collects brands such as Pioneer, Sharp, Saniya, National Panasonic, and Sony. “It’s the quality of these brands that makes me gravitate towards them. They are, of course, beautiful with a build that will put current machines to shame,” he adds.
Within a year, Arun searched and found 72 pieces of antique recorders. Each piece comes with its own story and Arun has been to all districts in Kerala looking for the next beauty to add to his collection.
“I came across a recorder sitting idle in a repair shop in Ernakulam. According to the shop owner, it had been sitting idle for over a year. To obtain it, I contacted its owner,” he says. However, the owner remained unreachable.
“A few days later, a message pops into my WhatsApp inquiring about all the missed calls I made. So I asked him whether I could have the recorder and that I will pay for it.” To Arun’s surprise, the owner told him to take the recorder for free.
“Then that old man told me that due to a bad bout of Covid, he lost his hearing. ‘What will an old guy like me do with a radio? Just take good care of it’ those were his words,” says Arun. Another time, Arun had to go to a Covid patient’s home to collect a set. “He did a great job of exchanging the set while isolating himself. He even did a lot of hand gestures to keep the money for the set in the same place as well,” Arun fondly recalls.
Arun also has around 600 cassette tapes, mostly of English classics. “Soon, I would like to build a room big enough to house my complete collection. It’ll be a place where I can relax and spend time with all the little treasures I have. A small escape anyone who would like to enjoy my collection can come and experience musical entertainment,” says Arun.
