WIND THE KEY, HEAR THE CITY

In an age of invisible music libraries and silent AirPod symphonies, the gramophone demands a different kind of attention.

- TAMREEN SULTANA @Hyderabad

N an age of invisible music libraries and silent AirPod symphonies, the gramophone demands a different kind of attention. It is unapologetically physical, tactile and communal. It asks for a hand to wind its key, an ear to lean in close and a shared moment to appreciate its warm, analogue soul. In Hyderabad's antique stores, this nearly-lost ritual of listening is being lovingly preserved.

In the 1970s and 80s, jukeboxes stood in popular cafes in Abids and other parts of the Old City, waiting for a 25-paisa coin to spin a favourite track. A song, a cup of chai and a short pause in a busy day — that was entertainment. Today, while most ears are plugged into apps and AirPods, nostalgia still lingers in the city's old homes and antique shops.

At Khaja Complex on Masab Tank-Banjara Hills Road, beside Dine Hill Restaurant, sits a fourth-generation antique store started by Mirza Mustafa Ali Baig and now run by his son, Mirza Azhar Ali Baig. Cameras, lamps, chandeliers, Polaroids — the place feels like stepping into a different century. But the show-stopper is a 70-year-old gramophone. "It's the main attraction," says Azhar, a Nizam enthusiast whose family has spent four decades restoring key-wound players and portable box gramophones, or valise models. Most of his finds come from the homes of Nawabs.