DELHI :

Rais Ahmad is one of the earliest to open for business in Chawri Bazaar in Old Delhi.

Rais Ahmad, 53, Sufia Handicrafts, Chawri Bazaar

Rais Ahmad is one of the earliest to open for business in Chawri Bazaar in Old Delhi. His tiny shop called Sufia Handicrafts is home to a mind-boggling number of miniature to mid-sized antiques. But before you begin to admire any of those, 53-year-old Ahmad takes you by your hand and pulls you towards the corner of the shop where his most precious collectables lay scattered—a side of the shop that’s home to heaps of original old gramophones and records. “So, what do you think about them?” he asks us, adding, “Have you ever seen a collection like this anywhere in Delhi?” Not waiting for our reply, he pulls us towards another corner of the shop where he takes our attention to imitations of the ones we had seen 20 seconds back.

Least to say, he loves his music and listens to Mohammed Rafi on a daily basis, while repairing all the gramophones that have been left behind to be fixed. He proudly tells us that he can set right almost any kind of snag, whether pertaining to manual gramophones or the electric ones.

Besides that, Ahmadji—as he is fondly addressed—stores vinyls in various regional languages, especially Bengali. While an original gramophone can cost you anywhere between `4,000 and `6,000, the imitations start at `1,500. The records, on the other hand, will cost you `100 to `200, and any kind of repair anywhere between `100 and `600, depending on how much it needs to be fixed.

Address: 1775, Main Road, Lal Kuan, Chawri Bazaar. Phone: 9810125493

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> The Sunday Standard / by SS / April 12th, 2015