Toy King Toy Service looks like a miniature version of Santa’s workshop. The tiny shop opposite Lords Hospital, Anayara, is clustered with toys big and small. Haphazardly arranged on shelves, while some of these toys are in one piece, others are in a jigsaw puzzle state.
Anil J. Babu is the proprietor of this eight month old workshop. Says Anil: “This shop is for the maintenance and repair of electronic toys.”
A pre-degree drop out, Anil learnt the tricks of handling and repairing electronic toys while working at an outlet selling toys. He then moved to Ernakulam where he worked for a toy company and honed his skills. Having two sons, Neeraj and Neeranjan, who love taking toys apart helps too.
“My younger son, Neeranjan who is in class six especially enjoys dissembling his toys. He mixes and matches the pieces with others.” Kind of what Anil does too.
For spare parts for the toys that he is repairing, Anil takes apart toys too. “You can at times use a spring or a wheel of one toy for another,” he says, as he picks up a container containing various mechanical and body parts of different toys. He also sources parts from Mumbai. “But that makes the repairing cost expensive.”
Toy cars and remote controlled toys are what he receives most for repair. “Most of these toys face wear and tear at the wheels.” And while it may seem repairing big toys may prove a challenge, Anil pooh-poohs the notion and says it is the small toys that require a lot of time and care as the mechanisms are delicate. Business, says Anil, is yet to pick up as not many know of his services. He is confident that it will soon boom though, “as I am perhaps the only toy repairman in the city.” To make ends meet at the moment, Anil works as a bus conductor for a private bus company.
“I work for them twice a week. I am lucky that my wife, Deepa, who works as a nurse at SP Fort Hospital is supportive.”
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