Image showing collection of old radios. For representational purposes.
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Amroha, UP: Ram Singh Bouddh, popular as the 'Radio Man', has secured a place in the Guinness World Records for amassing an unparalleled collection of over 1,250 radios.
"The largest collection of radios is 1,257, and was achieved by Ram Singh Bouddh in Gajraula, Uttar Pradesh, India, on February 13, 2024. Ram Singh was inspired to begin his radio collection after listening to the radio show 'Mann Ki Baat' hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Guinness World Records stated on its website.
The records on the website are not updated immediately, it added.
The name of Ram Singh (68), a resident of Naipura village in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district, was registered in the Guinness World Records on September 26 for collecting 1,257 unique radios.
"On February 18, a team from the Guinness World Records visited Naipura and selected 1,257 radios from a collection of 1,400 radios of different makes.
"My name was registered in the Guinness World Records on September 26 and the certificate was uploaded on its website the following day," Bouddh told PTI.
He also said that 137 radios have been given as gifts to the museum in Akashvani Bhavan in Delhi.
Bouddh had also written to Prime Minister Modi, expressing his desire to establish a radio museum in his hometown.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has praised Bouddh through a social media post, saying his collection is a preservation of the heritage of radios which will introduce the coming generations to the journey of the communication tool.
During his monthly radio show ‘Mann Ki Baat’ in November 2023, Prime Minister Modi praised Ram Singh for his love for radios and his efforts to establish a museum.
Ram Singh said after his name was mentioned in 'Mann Ki Baat’, his interest in radio collection got a boost.
After retiring as a supervisor in the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), Ram Singh spends most of his time with his radios.
Apart from well-known companies such as Bush, Murphy, and Philips, Ram Singh’s collection also includes radios made by Sony and Panasonic, among others.
The most valuable in his collection is a US Army radio made in 1920 worth Rs 20,000.
The largest radio belongs to the German Ground Link Company, measuring one-and-a-half metres, while the smallest one measures one inch, he told PTI.
He said Manohar Singh Rawat, in-charge of 'Mann Ki Baat', had expressed his gratitude to him for gifting radio sets to the museum in Akashvani Bhawan.
Apart from radios, Ram Singh's collection also includes 200 film reels from 1931, antique watches and calculators, 300 ancient manuscripts, gramophones, 2,500 ancient coins from different periods up to the British era, 12 pocket TVs, 50 telephones, petromax lamps, 150 stamps dating back to the Portuguese rule, and 250 postage stamps from the British rule, a 400-year-old handwritten Bhagavad Gita, and the world's smallest Bible.
However, one thing he will regret for the rest of his life is the fact that he did not receive a radio as his wedding gift, Ram Singh quipped.