Preserving the ‘ageing gems’ for discerning music lovers

Vijay Kumar says his sizeable collection of audio cassette tapes is not a liability as people continue to visit him looking for them

Seated at a corner shop in the bustling bylanes of the city’s Lajpat Rai market is 58-year-old Vijay Kumar, whose store – popularly known by its number, 634 – houses roughly 7,000 audio cassette tapes, a collection that took close to three decades to amass.

Often described by fellow store owners as someone who “lives in a world of his own” and “lives life at his own pace”, Mr. Kumar’s knack for collecting outdated yet functional cassettes is largely aimed at serving an exclusive clientele.

In the late 1970s, he recalled while dusting off a stack of tapes that his father ran a garment store in the space, which measures about 50 square feet, in the market, while a young Mr. Kumar set up a small display of cassettes within the same space. 

“When a customer was done purchasing garments at the store, I would point towards the small stack of cassettes and ask if they would like to buy a few. People rarely turned down the offer,” Mr. Kumar said. 

The market underwent a change in the years that followed. While most store owners engaged in the sale of electronic goods, which continues to this day, the major attractions were audio cassettes, which eventually faded with the arrival of CDs, pen drives and the eventual digitisation of the audio-listening experience.

But Mr. Kumar’s journey of dabbling in the sale of various electronic items eventually led him to switch to the sale of lighting equipment, a venture that came to an abrupt halt in 2020 following the first COVID-19-induced lockdown.

“The business venture did not work out, and I was left with this collection of tapes from which I didn’t earn much. Some people did come, especially those with a sense of music, looking for these tapes. I gladly made them write down the albums they wanted because I needed time to sift through the boxes and find them,” Mr. Kumar explained, emphasising that he will continue to preserve “these ageing gems till they’re worth it”.