From djembe to drums, khanjari to dholaks and violin to saxophone, this place is a one-stop shop for music aficionados.
Following the Partition, one Balwant Singh migrated to Delhi from Rawalpindi in Pakistan, where he would supply music instruments to the British army.
After staying in Delhi for six months, he moved to Pune as it played host to several army bases and started with a small shop on East Street, which today is popularly knows as The Musical Mart.
His son, Raminder Singh Rana soon followed in his father’s footsteps and took the business to a next level.
Today, Raminder’s sons Ravnit and Gurpreet run the shop. “It was a humble beginning for my grandfather, who came empty-handed and set up a business from scratch. From providing the drum sets to making customised ceremonial dress items for the bands, our shop was most-preferred by the army and the police bands in Pune during that period,” says Gurpreet, who joined the shop in 1990 as a teenager.
A sight of thousands of instruments catches one’s eye, the moment one enters it. Acoustic, classic and electric, one can get all types of guitars here. This place not only provides you a wide range of instruments, but also helps beginners choose the right kind of instrument. The brass instruments are imported from Delhi and guitars from China and Kolkata. “The army has a lot of jazz and pipe bands in their units and they keep upgrading themselves with new band sets and other instruments like guitar and drum sets,” adds Gurpreet.
The shop’s USP is customer satisfaction. “Our customers have been loyal to us for over 40 years,” says Gurpreet, who usually gets young customers with a limited budget looking for the right instrument. Retired officers, who once visited the shop as cadets or young captains during their tenure at the National Defence Academy (NDA), still visit the shop. Ace percussionist Sivamani makes it a point to visit the shop whenever he is in Pune.
The store, which stocks music books for learners, has international schools such as The Bishop’s, Gurukul and Indus International School as its clientele.
With the rise of independent bands, the sale of musical instruments has gone up. Apart from supplying instruments to army regiments in Nashik, Ahmednagar and Ooty among others, it also provides maintenance, spares and accessories to them.
The quality of products the shop supplies speaks for itself. “We keep away from advertisements as we believe in word of mouth publicity,” says Gurpreet, who also reveals that a new store in Aundh is in the pipeline.
