SwapnilJirageTravelPost: OBEROI MUSEUM, Kolhapur

So one fine day I received a video on my WhatsApp. It was about a small museum which was created by an individual in his own house and it looked like a really nice place to go and see for once.

After gathering the necessary information me and my family set out one fine evening to see this place.

Located right in front of Gold Gym in Kolhapur this bungalow is as beautiful as the owners 😊. Uncle Oberoi and his wife Mrs. Yashodhara Oberoi the creators of the museum welcomed us with a bright cheerful smile.

This place is a huge bungalow where a part of it is converted into a museum. Around 3 rooms filled with interesting pieces make the museum. Each and every piece has a story to it.

When we enter we are welcomed with a sight of old bikes and some old pieces. This included a bright Red Kinetic, a Yamaha, a Royal Enfield Bullet 1975 model, old electricity buttons, water purifier, refrigerator, old tiffin, typewriter, some idols and some weighing scales.

As we move forward we see few grinding stones.

An old stone sculpture of Lord Vishnu found at Rashingkar wada and Ganesha idols adorn the doorway.

As we move forward we see racks filled with different types of ganesha’s. Standing ,sitting, small, medium, big, wood, ceramic , glass, stone, new and old. The ganesh collection is huge.

To the left side of the entrance is a huge showcase with models of small toycars .

They have small collection of cars called Matchbox toycars. I am sure the car and bike lovers would love to see these as the models are right from old to new.

We can see some old alarm clocks which reminded me of the time when i was in school. We had similar kind of clock in our house where we had to give chabi (key) to set an alarm to the clock. 😀 With times the alarm clocks have changed too and we have them in our phone now so these clocks will vanish slowly.

Then we see some sculptures, counch, some bronze statues , fossils, teracotta coin moulds from mohenjodaro times, krishna idols, guns, swords and paintings from local artist.

Camera –

They have a good old collection of old cameras like Photona reflex camera of 1955, Nishika 3-D / 1995, Cannon slr 35 mm camera, Rittai, Rectangular pocket cameras, Klik, Afga clik, Vivitar, Kodak Folding Belo camera, Polaroid and Olyumpus to name a few.

Smallest Gita

A Gita from 1855 which is so tiny also sits in this place in a tiny showcase.

Mr. Oberoi owns a small land at Panhala in Kolhapur where they found a Ganesha idol and a shivling. They placed it there by making a small temple at that very place.

Now the intresting part is, they wrote all these details on parchments and kept it properly in a silver roll case. One in this house and one buried at the Panhala house. They said as we know our history our future generations should also know about the house they live in. So we made it interesting for them. We wrote it on the parchments and kept them in such a way that is intresting and different. They will have a written record from their older generations about the exact history and not just verbally passed on details which I thoroughly agreed.

Then we see some idols made of ivory.

As we go ahead ,kept in small transperent boxes were some articles which were found near Ujjain from the 5th century.

You know each of these things are so precious as they are a piece of our bygone era which tell us how it functioned in those times.

In marathi we must have heard this word sometime where women talk about “Gunjbhar sona”. How many of you know how much is gunjbhar ? If no then let me tell you

96 gunj – 1 tola

1 gunj – .122 miligram

729 mgr – 1 anna

16 ane – 1 tola

1 tola- 11.664 mgr

Obvioulsy all these details are something which i saw there and passing it forward to all you people here to know the small small information which we might not hear outside.

Then there is a small panel of Brass nutcrackers in various designs.

Similarly a panel with old brass and iron locks adorns the place.

There is this collectors item which Oberoi Aunty showed me which were the matchboxes.

It was released by an old matchbox company Vimco which has the Ramayana Series printed on it. Such items are priceless as they are available with few selected people only. You dont get an opportunity all the time to see them.

I am sure some of you might be having memories with these old phone’s 😊

This sandalwood idol was unique. It shows Lord Hanuman carrying Shree Ram on his shoulders. The idol behind shows Sita sitting in Ashok Vatika guarded by two demon women servants of Ravan.

Mr. Oberoi is also good at identifying various coins and stamps and has a huge collection of both of them.He has also got various awards for the same at various levels.

It is not that peope dont have anything old or antique but its a hard task and tiring too to keep so many items and antiques in such a good state with utmost cleanliness and finesse. This place is clean and tidy and that is all due to the hard work put in by the couple to maintain whatever they have in a good condition.

It is years of hardwork and determination that has been put in to collect and keep such treasures which will give an insight to the coming generations of different things which evolved with time.

This is the wedding invitation card of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi

Many people have come forward and donated various items here which are on display here along with their names.

There are many more things which i havent described in this blog like old lanterns, weapons, ganjifa (old playing cards), buttons right from army, navy and also prince of wales , some old newspapers, gramophone, radio, sharpners, old shaving kits, blades etc

I admire their love and enthusiasm with which they have been working tirelessly on their personal museum. I wish them all the best to carry on their good work in future too.