Occupation: Repairs gramophones
See that newspaper clipping? That is Mohanlal with his gramophone. I repaired that for him. He could not come to my shop; he would have been bothered by crowds and so he sent it through someone else. People come all the way from Kollam and Madurai to my little shop at Karamana. It is all through word of mouth publicity. There are dedicated collectors who have a craze for such things.
I have a lot of spare parts to repair all kinds of gramophones. If not, I can always make one by hand. That person you met while you came in wanted me to repair his gramophone. Some of them are agents for important clients. Then there are ardent collectors who come here to browse through my collection of LP records. One such collector is the son of the late Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma. He even bought my gramophone, a very good original I had. Some of the records that are kept in the cupboard were recovered from junk dealers. Some were collected during my trips to Madurai. I have LP records of old Tamil and Hindi songs and some English as well.
I can play one for you on this old one I have repaired. Most of the gramophones are copies made in Mumbai. A few original ones have also been repaired in my shop. There isn’t much money in this. The horns have to be plated, polished… all of which costs money. No, my sons are not into this. You need lots of patience. They don’t have that quality. But they are doing well. My eldest son is in the sound business while the second one is a make-up artiste. Each one has to choose his/her own line of work.
Look at me. Actually I hail from a family of goldsmiths. Many of us goldsmiths lost our livelihood with the advent of big jewellery stores in town. I learnt the trade, our kula thozhil (family trade), from my uncle who had his own placed in Karamana. This house that you see was my grandfather’s. My shop has been here for more than 50 years. So, although I am a goldsmith, once 14 carat gold and so on became popular, it was difficult to earn a living and I began repairing gramophones, radios and clocks. I have been running this place from the age of 16. That trade has stood me in good stead over the years and I brought up my two sons. It has also earned me fame and name and many awards too. However, I feel someone cast the evil eye on me and a few years ago I fell ill with a minor stroke. I am recovering gradually. My eldest son lives here with his family. I stay with my younger son at Thaliyal. I will show you a picture of my wife, whom I lost a few years ago. I keep her photo in my wallet. See, here it is…
Life goes on. Times have changed but if you have an old radio or gramophone to be repaired, bring it here, I can make it work again. Even these old pendulum clocks were brought here to be repaired but then the owners never turned up. So I have kept those here in my shop and I continue to do my work.
(A weekly column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
