Journalism of Courage
From a giant gramophone to a Blickensderfer typewriter and compasses to Mughal miniatures, hundreds of antiques including clocks, cameras and even pens are available at this red brick building that appears to be beaming with pride at Mount Road in Chennai. ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’, named after Charles Dickens’ 1841 novel, has been home to all kinds of artefacts and antiquities for close to eight decades now.
Visitors who frequent the shop claim it arouses one’s curiosity the moment one sets foot in it. After being greeted with rare photographs of Chennai, then Madras, including the First Line beach, Mount Road and Central Railway Station among others, a visual feast awaits each guest with several objects, some even centuries old, on display.
Mohammad Lateef, 67, who manages the shop now, says it was started in the 1940s by his father Ghulam Mohammad who initially sold various artefacts to the British and to wealthy Indians. Born in Kashmir, Ghulam Mohammad visited Madras for studies and decided to stay as he took a liking to the place. Lateef says his father’s ability to converse fluently with people from various countries in their own accents drew many to their store.
“People from across India used to come to Tamil Nadu for education. He liked it here because those days the north was in turmoil, but here it was peaceful. People were accommodating. He stayed at the building next to this, known as Khaleel Mansion, and once his mother agreed to let him remain here, she also sent him money for expenses. Walking by this place on Mount Road, he saw a TO LET sign and approached the owners to rent it for business. Initially, they were not willing as he had no business background, but Mohammad somehow managed to convince them saying he wanted to start a gift shop for foreigners,” Lateef says.
Mohammad’s family too lived in Chennai and eventually, his sons took over the shop. Lateef explains that if one goes into the history of gifting, Kashmir was famous for giving hand-crafted gifts to foreigners, which is why the store was earlier known as the ‘Kashmir Art Palace’.
Lateef says that more than his brothers, he had a natural inclination towards running the shop as he had similar interests like that of his father. He says that it didn’t take long for him to start adding things that fascinated him into the store, like toys, spectacles, fountain pens and the like. Soon, many hobbyists began to trickle in.
“The list of my hobbies started growing. I started including things that were not in the market. I was happy that I had something that people were searching for all across. It was like a child born from your desire. From the 1990s, youngsters started to drop in and I began to help nurture their hobbies,” he added.
Today, the objects at the one-of-its-kind shop are wide and varied. Projectors, jewel boxes, figurines of gods and goddesses, music box, radio, novels, sextants, mechanical watches, telescope, comic books, calculators, buckles, rings, shawls, carpets, rugs, VCDs, animal figurines, photographs, posters, maps, letters, books – the list goes on. Some are for sale, while others are Lateef’s personal favourites on display.
Sitting at the corner of his store amid collections of currencies, coins and stamps from across the globe, Lateef speaks at length about humanity, the difference between like and love, and how people should learn to start accepting things as they come. Sure enough, many of the curios at the store are accompanied by handwritten cards that quickly make one realise that business definitely takes a back seat here. The notes provide an insight not only into the history of the objects, but also into how it relates to them on a personal level. That is also probably why no one is allowed to take photos or videos inside the store. In Lateef’s own words, “If people want to know about this place, they need to come here.”
“On the periphery, the objects here may look like pieces of handicraft, but underneath it all there is something that I don’t think any other shop in the world has. There are antique shops that are much bigger and better looking than this, but this little shop has a soul,” he says.
Lateef says that since the shop is small, he won’t be able to display every item, so instead, he strikes up a conversation with the customer, understands their likes and picks up an artefact accordingly.
The items here start for sale from Rs 50 and, Lateef says, some are pricier – even bordering lakhs – which means that people often start saving money to buy such items as they are often treasured pieces of history. While the sexagenarian occasionally travels around to stock up, at times, people also approach him to sell the antiques in their possession.
With foreigners often associating India with the Taj Mahal and elephants, Lateef says the store has several varieties of elephants for such buyers who wish to keep such objects to remember their trip.
Confessing that he gets a sense of satisfaction when explaining about the various objects to customers, the 67-year-old says he sees it as a way of teaching something to the next generation. Pointing to a film camera, he says it is a first-generation one given to him by professional photographers near Triplicane, Royapettah in the city back in the day.
He picks up a copy of ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexandre Dumas from a rack which has 100 more such works by great authors. A telephone from the London post office also finds a place in the store and Lateef has taken efforts to keep it in working condition. On the other side of the store is a poster of British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd as well as pictures of former Tamil Nadu chief ministers C N Annadurai and M G Ramachandran.
Several political leaders and film personalities used to frequent the store, says Lateef, adding that today one of his sources of income is selling antiques to film crew who make period movies, including the 2010 hit Madrasapattinam and the 2013 Kamal Haasan-starrer Vishwaroopam. Several art directors too used to visit the shop seeking his help. Though his son Umar too works in the film industry, Lateef is hopeful that the youngster will take over the store one day, just like he did from his father.
