Kolkata’s Tarakeswar Rao: Helping rediscover the beauty of analogue music

This Independence Day, Unboxed travels across the nation to rediscover how we entertained ourselves, captured memories, and kept time. Today, we visit Kolkata’s Tarakeswar Rao.

Nestled among the brightly lit establishments on the Mirza Ghalib Street, in one of the narrow by-lanes of Kolkata, is a store that is part of the city’s musical fabric. Called ‘Western Pop Music’, it is home to a veritable collection of vinyl records.

In an age where the world’s music is just a finger tap away, this nondescript store will make you take a pause to admire the vintage gramophone propped in a corner and the colourful album covers staring at you from the shelves. This store reminds you of the simpler times, and so does the man who runs it – Tarakeswar Rao.

Rao has been running the store for over 30 years after taking over from his uncle Naresh Rao, who introduced him to the world of music. “My uncle used to bring me to his store,” he reminisces. “I remember being fascinated by the colourful record covers, and spent all my time looking at the photos and listening to music.”

What started as a childhood curiosity on how music comes out of these black discs turned into a passion that still burns strong today. Name a genre and he will spew out artist and album names faster than one can take notes. His uncle started collecting records in 1976, and Rao has continued this tradition in all earnest.

Today, his store attracts music aficionados and avid collectors from Kolkata and other cities in India. They come looking for albums from rock legends like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and other genres like Jazz, Country, and Pop.

“Many in India and abroad come here in search of rare albums by R. D. Burman, and Satyajit Ray,” he says while naming other legendary Indian artists like Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Lata Mangeshkar. There’s also a sense of pride when Rao shows his collection of albums from Bengali artists like Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Aarti Mukherji and many more.

Audio streaming may have made music more accessible, but the likes of Rao and those frequenting his store continue to prefer the warm and mahogany-rich sound of an old LP. “Digital music on a mobile phone doesn’t feel real, but Rafi sahab’s voice on a vinyl, that is real,” Rao says. “Those who listen to music on vinyls will never be happy with today’s digital music.”

He fondly recounts a story about a customer from abroad who came to him looking for an extremely rare Satyajit Ray album. “He had been searching for it since many years and had almost given up,” Ray says. “But when he finally found it at my store, his happiness knew no bounds.”

Rao only had the one copy, and despite its rarity, had no qualms in selling it, because he understands what a record can mean for a serious collector. While most of the records on his shelves will sell for anywhere between Rs 1,000 to 5,000, some have even sold for as much as Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 due to their condition and rarity.

This collection has also attracted a fair share of celebrities, including singers like Ajoy Chakrabarty, Anup Ghoshal, Jojo, and one Jolly Mukherjee. “(Bengali artist) Jolly Mukherjee wanted around 3,000 records for an event and after searching everywhere, he reached out to me,” Rao happily recounts. “I tapped into all my sources and delivered all the albums he wanted.” Incredulous though it may sound, Rao is quick to whip out his phone and show a photo with Mukherjee in his store.

Unsurprisingly, Independence Day, for this 46-years-old records collector, is also connected to music. Ask him about 15th of August, and he will answer by humming Lata Mangeshkar’s soulful Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon. “Every year around this time, I have people coming from all over and asking for this particular song.”

Rao has witnessed the transition from LP records to audio cassettes; CDs to audio streaming, and now the return of the vinyl. “Earlier it used to be 50-year-olds coming here looking for albums to add to their collection, but now I’m seeing younger people too.”

But he doesn’t see this revival as just a passing phase, “Vinyl records have a bright future, and the demand for them is only going to increase.” This demand is also the reason why newer albums are steadily coming to the market on a vinyl.

For anyone planning to get onto the vinyl bandwagon, the records are getting fairly easy to get your hands on. But becoming a collector is a whole other ball game – “har sheher jaake dhoondna hoga.” (Visit different cities and search for records).

While he’s confident about the future of vinyls, there’s a hint of unsurety when asked about the future of his own business. Rao plans to slowly introduce his 10-year-old daughter to this world of music. But he will let her choose her path and won’t thrust this responsibility onto her shoulders.

Be it the past, present or the future, Rao expects music to remain an intrinsic part of his life. After all, it’s been with him through his ups and downs, and everything he has today, he credits to music. “Besides music, I don’t like anything else,” he says.

Leave him alone for some time and you’ll find him transported into a different era with a smile on his face, and humming or listening to his favourite song on a record player – “Zindagi ka safar hai ye kaisa safar, koi samajha nahi koi jana nahi.”

Western Pop Music, 18, Mirza Ghalib St, Fire Brigade Head Quarter, Esplanade, Dharmatala, Taltala, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016