City Landmark – RK Mohan Musical Instruments, Hamilton Road
A city secret.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Pinewood harmoniums are piled up one upon another. Over there: a sitar, a veena, a mandolin.
Confined to a tiny space, this amazing Hamilton Road shop is densely crammed with “vadhya yantram.” You cannot wander around without hitting-hurting some frail precious-seeming musical instrument, each looking like a valuable family heirloom that somehow found its way to RK Mohan Musical Instruments.
This afternoon, the venerable Saravjit Singh is repairing a veena at his dimly lit establishment. His hands are moving slowly, as if assessing every move with prolonged thoughts. The shelves and closets around him are filled beyond capacity with musical instruments. An attic is chock-a-block with upturned sitars and surbahars. All is silence.
The shop dates from 1942, Saravjit Singh says, describing himself as a repairer and seller of musical instruments. He walks away from the veena, pointing to a jumble of objects piled up in a corner shelf: “See that one in dark wood! I cannot take it out without upsetting the whole arrangement… but it is a very old harmonium, it was made in Paris, and is decorated with hathi daat (ivory)”
He bends his body towards a dust-covered stack of instruments, sone draped in chaadar, casually identifying each with its name: “oud, sitar, Persian sitar, balma, miniature sitar, santoor, mandolin, rubab.. I get these instruments from all over… from the old bungalows in Civil Lines… from the kabad of schools… from….” He talks of a small church organ he acquired five years ago.
Summoning attention to an instrument lying atop a harmonium, he says, “That is a Persian santoor.” A decade ago–he recalls in a flat tone–a retired ballet dancer from Iran visited the shop and exclaimed that she used to dance in Tehran nightclubs to exactly that kind of santoor.
He now slides open a glass shelf, and, with great care, takes out a “bahut purana (very old)” violin. It is without its chords, he points out. The violin’s scroll is sculpted into a lion’s head. He carefully returns the violin to its place, and shows one more instrument. “Not many people have seen a thing like this… it is a guitar but built with a touch of sarod in it.”
He finally returns to the veena, applying black wax (mixed with kuchha coal) to its flat board, which is made of jackfruit wood. “It belongs to a lawyer’s mother,” he says, his repairing hands moving unhurriedly.
House of music
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