Connecting India through music

The millennium city’s diversity is reflected in this little known landmark of melodies

There is no knowing as to which song in which language may waft you over while passing by this music store. One afternoon, it was a Haryanvi folk number, while another time it was a satire song in Kumaoni. For years, this music shop has been on the verge of becoming history. Its continuance reflects in the owner’s failure to find a “better line of work”. He has been planning for a long time to close his shop, “as soon as I get a nice job.”

Till then, Gupta Music Center in Gurugram will continue to epitomise this metropolis’ cosmopolitanism. Its presence is a tribute to those Indians who come here from various parts of the country to build a new life. The shop stocks music CDS — obsolete elsewhere — in India’s many languages and dialects that one may not find elsewhere. These are songs in Nepali, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Bengali, Bundelkhandi, Adivasi, Haryanvi, Kumaoni, Garhwali, Rajasthani, among others... But what is a ‘Nagpuri language’?

“It is from Jharkhand,” informs owner Rajendra Gupta, perhaps concluding from the fact that the state of Jharkhand largely comprises the Chota Nagpur plateau.

A Haryana native, he founded the shop in 1992. “I started my business by stocking Hindi, Haryanvi and Punjabi songs.”

Gradually, the owner explains, as Gurugram became a magnet for work opportunities, the “customer demand” of new citizens — “who often work in construction sites, hotels and dhabas” — urged him to expand his multilingual repertoire. Far from their homes, these new settlers would heal their homesickness in the songs of their native lands, says the shop owner.

“Initially, I used to sell (audio) cassettes, but they were replaced by the CDS,” which have been replaced by the internet. Indeed, a Hindustan Times feature on the owner, published back in 2016, talked of how he was planning to shut down his music trade because of the redundancy of CDS. Six years later, the store has 3,000 CDS, though “many people come to me to get songs downloaded on to their memory cards.”

Meanwhile, his son too has joined his music business. “Mohit is 24. He has done a course in computers, but that is perhaps not enough to get a nice job.”

As long as the father (who is now 52) and son do not find a more lucrative career, this rare landmark is likely to survive.

And if they do, then it will be time to say this landmark a final goodbye.