George Harrison and Ravi Shankar were loyal customers. More than 70 years since it opened, this family business is still crafting instruments that last a lifetime
In a dusty, crowded corner of south Kolkata, India, is a quaint 73-year-old musical instrument shop that easily goes unnoticed. Nobody chances upon Hemen & Co – you have to know it’s there. A no-frills, dilapidated facade conceals its worth: the shop has produced sitars, sarods, violins, guitars and more for musicians including George Harrison, Yehudi Menuhin and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, plus Indian stars such as Ravi and Anoushka Shankar.
Sitars in Hemen & Co are wrapped in plastic and hung from the ceiling with wires. Paint peels off the walls. At 180 sq ft, the shop is tiny; being right on the main road, dust is inevitable. Outside the shop, buses screech to a halt as the traffic lights turn red. The smell of fresh chai lingers as rabindra sangeet chimes from a speaker somewhere in the distance. A second branch down the road is only slightly larger.
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