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Getting lost in the network of alleys that make up Chor Bazaar is an adventure to say the least. While ogling at antique chests of drawers, rummaging through piles of trinkets (all this while instructing the hoarder in you to stay calm) and just making a great deal of effort to tear yourself away from all the things you really truly ‘need’, it is very easy to look over and walk past shop number 26. A spec in the treasure trove that is chor bazaar, Haji Ibrahim Record Store apart from being one of the very few record stores in Mumbai, is home to one of the most interesting vintage phone collections you will ever lay your eyes on.
Gulam Hussain Haji Ebrahim or Hussain (a name he is referred to by family and friends), owner of the store, joined the family business 18 years back after the passing of his father Haji Ebrahim. An enthusiastic vinyl collector, Haji Ebrahim Record Store was even then one of the leading dealers of vinyls in the city. Today, while carrying on his father’s legacy, Hussain has also branched out into his passion for antique phones. Hussain’s eyes light up and hands begin to move in an animated fashion while talking about phones, he says “Main jo business karta hoon paise ke liye karta hoon, par phone ka business main apne aap ke liye karta hoon (All the different businesses I do are for money, but the phone business is something I do for myself).”
When looking around in this tiny shop, one among many of its kind, you can’t quite gauge the sheer variety of Hussain’s antique phone collection. From field telephones for military communication to a phone disguised as a Harley Davidson model of a motorbike sitting atop a pile of papers — all you can possibly feel when Hussain begins to pull-out pieces from the collection is sheer amazement.
“My mother wanted me to become a doctor, and today, that’s exactly what I am — a doctor of telephones,” jokes Hussain. Apart from collecting vintage phones, Hussain also repairs old pieces while trying his best to replace old parts with original substitutes. Much like a connoisseur of wine, who with a single whiff can identify the origins of the wine in question, Hussain too has an extraordinary knack of identifying models of vintage telephones and can easily distinguish an original from a fake, which is what he did when he visited one of Mumbai’s most famous Irani cafes. On his way out after his meal, out of habit Hussain’s eyes veered towards the vintage phone resting on the counter top, one look at the bottom of the receiver and he knew it wasn’t original. He tried telling the owner the same thing, but the owner refused to believe him. Finally, a while later Hussain got his hands on an original version of the same model and handed it to the owner of the café, and that was that. Ever since then, the family that runs the café always turns to Hussain with all their vintage phone related queries.
Something that I had been looking forward to asking Hussain was how the increasing popularity and need for mobile phones — with the devices becoming extensions of our bodies — has affected the market? “Today, Vintage phones are bought as art and not as objects of utility, and well, art never goes out of fashion,” says Hussain optimistically.
Hussain’s collection includes pieces that date back to the early 1900s and are from all across the globe. Ask him about where he gets them from and the answer is as obscure as can get. A sign of a good businessman, I suppose. The prices of the vintage articles vary, ranging from INR 2,000 to anywhere close to 15,000 and sometimes even more. A lot of niche businesses like that of Hussain’s rely on their loyal base of customers they’ve built over the years, but Hussain’s customers, like his choice of profession are a little too specific. “I have three customers,” say Hussain matter-of-factly, and when I ask him to tell me more because well, by this point I am extremely confused, he says with the same amount of nonchalance, “One is Malaysian, one is German and one is from Australia. I know they are very interested in vintage phones, I don’t ask them why they need it or what for. They tell me what they need on the phone and I keep it ready. It’s simple. I make a few sales to walk-in customers, but that isn’t something I can depend on.”
As unfazed as Hussain is by his phones being used in a recent Shah Rukh Khan movie, he is equally ecstatic to pull out his phone to show us photos of his children posing with the vintage phones. “As soon as I get a piece I take it home for my three children to play with. It’s their’s first before the rest of the world gets to have it,” he says. But would he want his children to continue his passion? His response is a prompt and vehement no. “I want them to study and do what they want to,” says Hussain.
A phone looks like a train and rumbles and whistles instead of ringing, a dog that grins when you pick up the receiver and barks when someone calls, a Japanese Hello Kitty that dates back to 1955, and one made entirely of ivory — what is Hussain’s favourite from his entire collection? It is after asking this question that I see Hussain’s love for vintage telephones come to life. Hesitant at first, Hussain finally revels that his favourite is the phone with a drawer — an old school phone with a rotary dial and a tiny drawer at the bottom, big enough to only fit one notepad. Hussain pulls it out of a plastic bag, holding it as carefully as one would hold an infant. “I’ve been looking for this for over a decade now. I recently found two pieces. This is what I will install in the shop,” says Hussain with immense proud. When asked whether he’d be willing to sell these, he answers within an instant “Never.”
Hussain’s childlike possessiveness of his favourite piece comes to the forefront when he doesn’t allow us to photograph this particular model. “I don’t want people to quote prices for it. This one is for me to keep,” says Hussain, in his defence, while signing off.
Haji Ibrahim Record Store (Shop no. 26) is located in Jamnadas-A Building on Mutton Street in Chor Bazaar.
You can also call them on +91 9224703063.
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