Almost lost Garhwali & Kumaoni gramophone records digitalised by DLRC

my uttarakhand news Bureau
Dehradun, 14 Sep: The Doon Library and Research Centre successfully traced 46 almost lost gramophone folk songs and digitalised them. Under a special project, a drive was launched to find and digitalise the songs. Songs of 18 artists, totalling 46, were digitalised. The work on this project is being carried out under the guidance and support of Prof BK Joshi, Chairman, and N Ravi Shanker, Director, Doon Library and Research Centre.Even the iconic song by legendary Garhwali folk singer Jeet Singh Negi, ‘Tu Holi Beera’, which was released in 1949, and the famous song by Mohan Upreti, ‘Bedu Pako’, from the 1970s, are now in the Doon Library’s collection. The collected songs span the 1939 to 1979 period and capture the 40 year history of gramophone records in Uttarakhand.Once tape recorders invaded the Indian market the bad days of the gramophone began, and after the CD revolution, it completely disappeared from public view. It was a challenging project to find the gramophone records and convince their collectors to lend them for digitalising.The maximum number of songs found are of Jeet Singh Negi and Gopi Devi (six songs, each). This is followed by four songs, each, of Mohini Sharma, Uma Shanker Satish, Gopal Babu Goswami, Raj Kishore Mishra, Vachaspati Dyundi, Chanda Bai and Champa Devi. Other songs found are of Master Sher Singh, Indira Bai, Ram Pyari, Keshav Anuragi, Mohan Upreti, Nayam Khan, Vijay Chhetri, Sushma Chandola and Bijendra Lal Shah.Speaking about the unique project, Chander Shakhar Tewari of the Doon Library and Research Centre said, “After digitalising the songs, we are now preparing a research report on the gramophone record history of Garhwal, Kumaon, and Juansar. The main aim was to preserve the gramophone songs for their cultural heritage value. Last time we digitalised five rare gramophone records in the library and the wide media coverage helped us reach many other gramophone collectors who extended help in this project.”After getting five gramophone records from Jugal Kishore Petsali for the Doon Library museum, the project received a major boost when they managed to secure five other records from the collection of Brigadier Rajendra Rawat (Retd) in Dehradun. Gokul Negi in Faridabad (Haryana) approached the library and shared information that he had a rare gramophone collection of his father, Chand Singh Negi. Negi provided seven records for digitalising. Record collector Zafar Shah from New Delhi provided digital copies of four records, including two non-commercial records produced by Uttar Pradesh government. The Uttar Pradesh information department recorded the famous Kumaoni song ‘Bedu Pako’ by Mohan Upreti and party. The U.P. Government’s recorded song captures ‘Badu Pako’ in a totally different flavour.A total of 21 gramophone records, produced by leading gramophone companies like His Master’s Voice, Columbia, Aero-Phone, Indian Records Manufacturing Company (INRECO) and Star Hindustan Record Company,  were traced and digitalised. The songs would otherwise have disappeared forever, as the gramophone is no longer a popular medium for hearing songs. The songs sung by Sher Singh, Indira Bai, Ram Pyari, Chanda Bai, Champa Devi, Gopi Devi, Gopal Babu Goswami, Jeet Singh Negi, Mohini Sharma, Keshav Anuragi, Naima Khan, Mohan Upreti, Vijay Chhetri, Uma Shanker Satish, Sushma Chandola, Vachaspati Duyndi, Raj Kishore Mishra and Bijendra Lal Shah are now in the Doon Library’s collection.Raju Gusain, associated with the project, said, “I started the search for Jeet Singh Negi’s record about 10 years ago, and for this I established contact with many leading gramophone collectors in India, but failed. This time we managed to get it from Faridabad. Two different versions of the famous Kumaoni song ‘Bedu Pako’ were digitalised; each presents a different flavour. Gramophone restoration expert Moloy Ghosh helped us digitalise the collection this time.”Out of the 21 records found, 7 were produced before India’s independence and 14 after 1947. With gramophone players becoming collector’s items and antiques, the chance of finding records of Garhwali and Kumaoni songs was remote. Gramophones were played on selected occasions like fairs, festivals, marriage functions,Garh Ratna and renowned folk singer Narendra Singh Negi, film photographer Govind Negi, Sunder Singh Bisht, Vaishnavi, Shailendra Semwal, Ajay Rana, and several others attended today’s programme.