Happiness on record

Like many other Bengalureans, Suraj Moraje too has been spending his quarantine working from home.

Pic: Meghana Sastry
Pic: Meghana Sastry

Bengaluru :

Like many other Bengalureans, Suraj Moraje too has been spending his quarantine working from home. This means back-to-back calls with other colleagues, but the incoming group CEO of business service provider Quess Corp has found something that has helped calm nerves. In between work commitments, Moraje finds a moment or two to spin a vinyl record on any one of the three players he has at home.

“I listen to jazz or some music in the background. These are stressful times, so it’s nice to listen to a piece of music,” he says, adding how his wife and two sons, aged 13 and 10, spent a part of their Sunday listening to Top of the World by The Carpenters. “My elder son groans about how we’re all singing together but the rest of us like it,” he laughs.

Though having harboured a love for music for as long as he can remember, Moraje’s love for vinyl records took off seriously 6-7 years ago. His collection, which stood at a simple 50 then, has grown to 800 now. Arranged alphabetically, the collection includes Pink Floyd, Queen, Carol King, Dire Straits and more. “What can I say, I’m a bit of a control freak, I like knowing exactly where to find Billy Joel,” he says. It’s then easy to imagine how music is a constant fixture in his house. The 44-year-old affirms, “My younger son is often our DJ. Music definitely plays a central role in our lives. I even met my wife at a discotheque.”

For Moraje, life before his vinyl record collection meant spending weekends downloading mp3 songs, but one conversation with him is enough to show that he truly loves his vintage collection. “You connect to a vinyl in more ways. There’s the crackle, the ability to hold it and see the art work. Vinyls sound messier because it’s like live music being recorded. But it’s more real too and comes together well,” he says, adding that he often keeps time apart during his travels to hunt for some records.

So far, his collection includes finds from the Philippines, Italy, Portugal, USA, Malaysia and Singapore. Most of them, however, are secondhand records. He explains, “There’s something special about collecting older records. Some might have a name in the cover, some are older than you and make you wonder about the previous owner, the room the record was played in or more.”So what’s he been listening to lately? Pat comes the reply: Why Worry by Dire Straits. “It goes something like this: Why worry now, there’s always laughter after pain, sunshine after rain,” he says. “It’s a great soothing song.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Simran Ahuja / Express News Service / March 24th, 2020

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