THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If one contactedr Sreekuma on his mobile phone, on the other end you would hear the melodious ‘Chakkara Panthalil Thenmazha’, one of KPAC’s old drama tunes. But step into ‘Kanakadhara’, near Valiyavila in the city, the queerness will vanish into thin air. After going through the antique collections of this veterinary technician at his residence, the queerness vanished into thin air. The man with an unquenchable thirst for antique items has been collecting valuable souvenirs of the past for the last three decades or so. It all happened when Sreekumar’s father, who was with the Travancore State Force, gifted him a few coins which dated back to the times of the Travancore Kings. “Infatuation with coins began at that point in time,” remembers Sreekumar. Now, he has got more than 2,500 coins, both old and new, lying in his vaults. Some of the oldest coins like ‘Punch-mark coin’ (Harsha Panam) of Harsha’s era, ‘Pashupathy coin’ of Kushanas’ era and coins minted during Chola and Chera period are preserved in his well-stored case. “College teachers and students approach me for obtaining information regarding the age and the history of these coins. That means, I have to go through historical facts regularly,” he said with a rare glare of pride. Sreekumar has also got an exclusive collection of more than 250 coins that bore imprints of animals. The coins minted by Tipu Sultan, Hyderali and Harsha Vardhana had elephants as the objects of imprint. ‘Kookabura’, a coin from Australia made of pure silver weighing a kilogram, is another prized item in his collection. “Collecting coins that bore the images of animals is my prime hobby. Animals are closely linked to my life as I am a veterinary technician,” says Sreekumar. Sreekumar has got some strange tactics to acquire old coins that he keeps searching for. While attending to the pets of the old joint families and ‘manas’, he usually asks for the coins lying unnoticed in the prayer rooms and ‘pathayam’ as fees. “They are more than happy to get rid of the ‘trifle things’ to me,” he says. Besides, the expatriates and the air-hostesses who know Sreekumar would fly in coins from foreign countries. Even in the midst of his chat with City Express, Sreekumar attended two phone calls from abroad, seemingly from his friends who wanted to gift him something when they returned. “You know what I want,” was his reply. He also has a rare vault which contained an old pen, weights & measurements and agriculture utensils of the past. On the backyard of his house lies ‘Chumadu Thangy’, an antique material which was commonly seen on our roadsides until a few years ago. “They are now treading towards oblivion,” Sreekumar says. These were shifted to his house after the hartal supporters of a political party displaced the monument located near Valiyavila and placed it on the road to block traffic. On entering his room, Sreekumar darted to a corner and picked up a tray which contained many gramophone records, mostly ghazals and old film songs. While we were busy glancing through the antique items on display in his room, Sreekumar played a 30-year-old ghazal record on his vintage gramophone. The lyrics of the song described in detail the innocence and beauty of the bygone era. Lying on his old cot, Sreekumar tried to lip-sync, as if he were a hero from an old movie.
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