81-year-old city shop stores memoirs of a time gone by

While Chennai as a city, and its culture, may have both gone through a dramatic transformation, there are few things that have stood the test of time. The red-bricked, dignified oddity of a shop, amid a few colonial buildings of Mount Road, is a rare testimony to that. 

Having opened its doors a year before independence, the 81-year-old shop, welcomes one with a sense of nostalgia with early photographs of good old Madras — its rivers, Indo-Saracenic buildings, the iconic tram and horse carts on the empty roads, dotting the walls. 

Its present proprietor, the cheerful 61-year-old Mohamad Lateef, says, “My grandfather was on a tour of South India. He liked the peace and quiet of Madras. His command over English and ability to converse uninhibitedly with the British helped him build a rapport with them. That’s when he decided to start a small store with 

all the artifacts he had collected while travelling, to cater to their art and craft needs.” 

Intrigued by the plethora of relics that one can spot in the store, the shop got its name from British customers, after Charles Dickens’ novel of the same name. From an old Victorian mirror, a huge gramophone, original lithographs dating back to the 1940s, an old bicycle lamp, bizarre weapons used by tribes and their masks, traditional carpets from around the world, clocks and time pieces from the 1900’s, and a hunter’s cuckoo clock, to pens, tiny compasses, sundials, early government records, and an array of several other relics, the shop houses extremely rare memoirs. 

A row of daguerreotypes and vintage cameras also marks the history of photography, with the earliest being from the mid nineteenth century. Lateef, a wonderful conversationalist, also speaks endlessly and very passionately about each of the pieces, which he also collects during his travel expeditions. 

“We also make replicas of these pieces. They are a huge hit. My idea at the end of the day is to revive the lost art of conversation. With the advent of technology, we’re lost in our smartphones and live in the virtual world than in reality. These art pieces, with the history they carry, will not only connect people with their history but also give them a reason to talk to each other, spread knowledge and in the process understand each other. 

It’s a chain process,” says Lateef, before quickly adding, “But I must say that the younger generation values art. For instance, a young doctor recently picked a piece for his clinic to distract his patients form the illness they may be fighting and make them feel comfortable momentarily. Word spread and I had many young doctors pick up pieces from here in the recent past.” 

The shop has also been graced by the rich, famous and powerful  — it was visited often by the Nehru family on their trips to Chennai and it holds an original letter written by then President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. MGR, Jayalalithaa and other luminaries of the Tamil film industry later made frequent visits as well. However, he says footfalls have dropped after GST. 

“The government has levied a tax of 12 per cent. I have seen visitors decrease noticeably. It’s unreasonable. Nevertheless, I will fight to keep us afloat,” says Lateef whose store has won the Best Handicraft Shop from the TN government. As I exit the store, a rare sculpture of a five-headed Ganesha, catches my attention. “Trade secret,” he says, refusing to divulge how he acquired it.