In the lanes of Pune lies the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, opened to the public on the 19th of March, 1962. This is a one-man collection of Dr. DG Kelkar. While he dedicated its name to his son who passed away in an untimely death, the museum stands as a testimony to himself - the man who constantly travelled, and constantly collected, even from obscure villages and tribes, to grand temples and fairs.

The museum contains not grant pieces of dedicated art, but art found in the everyday, objects of life which are a part of millions of Indians, just put up for display, and a little bit of reflection on the beauty that is all around a human. Lamps, woodwork, tin ware, palanquins, combs, bowls, hookahs, locks, stones, musical instruments, painting, miniature and glass paintings, containers, wooden doors and windows, figurines, models of settlements, bronzes, arms and armours, ivory, textiles, utensils - everything depicts a part of an Indian’s life, be it from the rich or the poor.

Dr Kelkar would leave behind a rich treasure trove of material to be arranged and displayed, and his legacy of collection would be followed by a series of awards and prizes by the Government of India and various international organisations. He even gave the collection and the museum to be managed by state authorities by the end of his life.

Thus, as the collection opened to the general public, it is perhaps a good reminder of a man whose zeal carried him afar, made him notice the small ins-and-outs and arts of life, and then compile them all in a collection as massive as the one existing now.