KOLKATA: On Sunday, a day before World Heritage Day, the city’s ‘ghori man’ — Md Masood
Alam
— was felicitated by Purono Kolkatar Golpo (PKG), a Facebook group with over 1.5 lakh members, with a memento, a certificate of honour, new clothes and Rs 5,000.
Alam has been repairing antique clocks of Seikosh, Ansonia, Seth Thomas and
Smith Enfield
at his small shop, situated at the juncture of Central Avenue and M G Road crossing. His 100-year-old shop is a charming little museum of antique clocks, carriage clocks, chiming clo-cks, table clocks, wall clocks and grandfather clocks.
“He has been repairing antique clocks for the past 50 years. Repairing old clocks is his passion and his craft needs recognition. At a time when there are a few such clockmakers in the city, his craftsmanship is considered to be an intangible heritage of Kolkata. For us, people like him and his passion and emotion for his craft make Kolkata the living city,” said
Swarnali Chattopadhyay
, a administrator of the group.
Everyday the 60-year-old travels from Garden Reach and opens his shop, which is full of French, Japanese, German, American and Indian antique clocks ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 50,000. During the lockdown, he used to come to his shop on foot, walking for two and a half hours daily. “I started learning this craft from my father at the age of 10. He always told me that I should be honest with my customers. I have been following his words till now. My shop doesn’t have a signboard but people all over
Bengal
and the country respect me for my craft,” said Alam. However, his next generation is not keen on following his footsteps as they have well-to-do jobs.
“People come to me as they fail to get their antique clocks repaired anywhere else. There are very few clockmakers like me who have survived in this age of quartz clocks,” said Alam, adding “sometimes it takes hours and sometimes it takes weeks to fix the fault in a clock but I never give up.”
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