Dr Ammangi’s collection of Music CD’s crosses 30000

In the words of Pluto, “music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to imagination and life to everything “. We have often seen madness for music, people going crazy about it, there is so much passion for music. In India, it is the glittering world of Bollywood that has captured this space, this madness.

One such music lover resides in the city of Belagavi, his love for music is unique. To meet him you have to visit Shetti Galli corner, right at the corner is a two-storey building painted in two shades of green, and his name is Dr. Jamilahmed Ammangi, a homeopathy practitioner by profession.

Jamil’s love for music is congenital, he was crazy about listening to Bollywood music right from his childhood. The old radio at home or anywhere in the street was like his greatest passion, he could spend hours listening to songs on the radio.

When he started earning he bought a tape recorder and bought tapes to listen to music, but then income was not enough.

Soon Jamil started working like any other man but his love for music was unending. He wanted to listen to more and more songs every day. In the early 2000s, Jamil found a release for his passion, it was now that music CDs were available in the market and his happiness knew no bounds, he wanted to have them all, they are quite costly then, but when did money matter to a mad for music man.

Jamil or Dr Ammangi as everyone calls him wanted to own every music CD ever produced, we wanted to have in his library every song ever sung in Bollywood. This passion started a new hobby and he started buying CDs, initially, they came with black and white covers but then there were some lovely colored covers too.

His passion becomes his craze and soon he had every song right from 1947 that was recorded on a CD. You can sit with him today and he with his smiling face will be more than happy to show you guys 30000 CDs that he has collected in the last 20 years. Put in plastic bags and kept carefully inside his cupboards you can’t miss his love for them.

Dr Ammangi has spent over Rs. 4,00,000 on collection his CDs, he has every song from every movie in the last 60 years. His house is not much as he is not many electronics or luxuries, his CDs are the only assets he has made. He lives with his wife who appreciates his love for music and never objected.

When asked which are his favorite songs his answer is instantaneous the old ones. The new ones he says have less meaning and don’t quite give the same feelings. Kishor Kumar is his favorite singer and he has every song that he sang.

Agent Vinod , Aan Baan , Man Ka Meet , Parwana , Doo Jasoos and so on and so on, there is a never-ending list of CDs that Dr Ammangi has in his collections, some of the movies we may not even know.

Quite easily you can sense the madness for music in him when you get him talking about the songs. The last three years and the lockdown, however, have been difficult for him and he has not been able to add to his collection, but his love for music has not faded and he can still listen to songs all day long.

I have no children he says, neither do I have property or luxury, my CDs are all that I have and they give me the greatest pleasure in my life. In an age when music is available online and in pen drives CDs may appear space-occupying and worthless but for Jamil, his CDs are his greatest belongings.

Such passionate lovers of music are what keeps music alive. When we ask him what will happen to his CDs after him, he says they will have fulfilled their purpose of giving him company all his life. Such true lovers of music today, are hard to find. We are left in amazement at the love and passion that Dr Ammangi has for his CDs and wish his hobby never dies.

There is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of our, you simply take as much as you require said Edward Elgar. For music lovers like Dr Ammangi there simply isn’t enough.