Stitched together through tradition

Along the bustling streets of Girgaum lies a market that is often overlooked by passers-by — a market that sells sewing machines of all shapes and sizes. Tucked between beauty salons and grocery shops, each shop is stacked with rows upon rows of sewing machines. While some are sourced from China, Japan and other countries, a few in-house brands also make their appearance. The ten or so shops, clustered together along Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road, form one of the oldest markets of its kind of sewing machines to be found in the city. Dating further back than Indian independence, their origin can be traced to the Mumbai cotton trade.

Mehta Brothers and Company is one of the oldest shops in the area. Both industrial style and domestic machines are sold here and shelf upon shelf is stacked with parts. Sewing machines ranging from those used to sew linings on shirts to those that sew shut industrial gunny bags can be found scattered around on every available surface.

Jitendra Mehta, who is well into his seventies, says that it was his father who first established the shop nearly a hundred years ago. The shop was one of the first three original shops to have cropped up in the area. “Three shops came up here and the rest cropped up around them. The other two shops have shut down, so mine is the only original store still around,” he says.

A few doors down, Maninder Pal Singh of Gurudev Singh and Sons, gives a brief rundown of the history of the market, as he sits ruminating in the twilit Mumbai evening at the doorstep of his store. Having grown up around the sewing machine business, he doesn’t remember a time when he was not exposed to the business, which he officially plunged into at the young age of 15 years.

“During the days of my grandfather, the main market used to sit at the port — not far from here. Sewing machines were one of the items that were imported and when the ships would bring them ashore, traders would then bring the machines here to these shops. Similar markets in places like Dadar and Malad have come up since then, but this is the oldest. Most of the shops are at least 50 years old,” he explains.

However, due to fierce competition from the ready-made garments industry, the market has dwindled down from its glory days. “There were over 20 shops here at one point, but now we have just around ten shops. Our machines would have been sold to local garment factories and though there are a few of them still around, most of the market has been taken over by international brands, so the demand for industrial machines have lessened,” he laments.

Not just industrial machines, even domestic machines are not in such high demand anymore, says Jitendra. “Once there was a tradition of gifting sewing machines at weddings — it was an integral part of the household. Now, most women don’t really have the time for all of that and so, not that many embroidery machines are in demand,” he elaborates.

Still, all is not lost, as many of the next generation of traders have also taken up the helm. Pranay P. Solanki, with his carefully gelled hair and friendly demeanour sits behind the desk at P Bhagwandas & Sons, as a representative of the next gen. “We have enough demand to get by. There are over a hundred machines here. While Jitu Uncle (Jitendra) is the one who knows the most about this bazaar, most of us grew up around here and came naturally into the business and want to continue the legacy,” he smiles.