In a 10×12 ft room, Anandi Sansar houses a collection of 1,000 artefacts of brass, copper, and silver, drawing people with a passion for art and heritage.
Near Phadke Haud in Pune’s Kasba Peth, a housing society looks like a little more than a collection of boxy apartments. The ground floor is used as parking for scooters and motorcycles, electric wires dangle overhead, tube lights promise respite from the shadows, and thick pipes hold walls in tight hugs. Yet, like so many things about Kasba Peth, this building holds a surprise.
On the other side of an ordinary iron door stands what is arguably one of the country’s smallest museums. Artefacts of brass, copper and silver glow from shelves, hang on walls, rise from the floor, and beckon you to explore your past in a way that is not written in history books. This is Anandi Sansar, which houses a collection of 1,000 pieces in a 10×12 ft room.
Plates, glasses, kalash, cups and vases share space with old coins, a saxophone that evokes bygone music, alarm clocks, small models of scooters, cars, trucks and bullock carts, busts of tribal figures and a metal purse. There is an embellished hair ornament in silver that was once tucked into long braids. A copper basin from 1847 that was used to hold warm water for baths. A range of swords, with intricate hilts and scabbards. A koeri with an ingenious locking system that is 100 years old is made up of sections to hold rice, kumkum, and other essentials for ritual prayers.
