Hyderabad’s Mahboob Radio Service still stands tall

Hyderabad: Even though technology has made great advancements and we are living in the smartphone era, the radio still holds a special place in our hearts. And a radio repair shop in the Old City is helping radio enthusiasts keep the old charm intact.

Mahboob Radio Service, which boasts of being the only radio repair shop in Telangana, is situated at Chatta Bazaar near Charminar and continues to take up repairs of radios of all kinds.

Set up in 1948 by Shaik Mahboob, during the end of the Nizam rule, the repair shop still enjoys its patronage for customers. The story goes that Mahboob, a businessman, frequently visited Bombay, now Mumbai, and during one of his trips bought a radio set. As the curiosity for the piece grew in his neighbourhood, a few of his acquaintances sought his help in getting radios from Bombay.

“My father bought a few more sets and sold them to acquaintances. He later learned to repair radios and set up a shop at Dabeerpura which was later shifted to Chatta Bazaar,” said Mohammed Moinuddin, son of Mahboob who now runs the workshop.

He recalls that several royals including the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, who was a prominent customer. “The Nizam might have not come down to the store but his deputies or staff dropped in whenever the radios needed a repair. We repaired it and dropped it back at the palace. Of course, we were paid generously for the service,” he explained.

The shop also has customers from far and wide with many NRIs from the Middle East who are in the city come to the shop carrying the old radios they have at their homes. “They want it to get repaired and would like their children to have an experience of it,” says Moinuddin.

Old-timers recall that people who could not afford to buy a radio stopped by the shop during morning and evening to listen. “Huge rush was witnessed at the shop in our childhood especially for the news aired in the mornings and evening,” recalls Hamed Hussain Jaffery, a resident of Purani Haveli.

Several brands of radios such as Telefunken, Murphy, Philips, GEC, Johnson, and Marconi are repaired. “We stock some old radios whose spare parts we use for repairing other radios as all companies are not producing the spare parts,” says Moinuddin. He explained that the radios can be repaired, unlike the modern gadgets which need to be discarded after using for a certain time frame. “We hope we will continue serving the people till our last breath. Our children showed little interest in the vocation and took other jobs,” he says before signing off.