The sight of the shop so filled with musical instruments fills one with surprise. Veenas, sitars, violins, tablas, dholaks, mridangams, flutes, nadhaswarams - you name it, it is there. "There is happiness and contentment, peace and solace, in music," says the owner Abdul Kareem. "In it, we forget where we are and ultimately the whole world." Abdul Kareem is the third generation owner of the shop "Dawood & Sons", which has been on Triplicane High Road, Chennai, for more than 75 years. They make musical instruments as well as repair them.

According to him, those in his line of business should not only be well-informed about instruments, but should have even better knowledge of the various systems of music than proponents of those systems themselves. He himself can play almost all musical instruments, some of them very well. In fact, between 1973-75, he used to play for films, but after his father's demise, when he had to take over the shop, he stopped that. Even now, he claims, there is no one who can tune a sitar or veena as well as he can.

Abdul Kareem has to cast his net wide to get the instruments that stock his shop - harmoniums and flutes come from Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta, nadhaswarams from Narasingampettai near Kumbakonam, wood for making mridangams, tablas and  thavils from Panruti, etc. Apart from customers from all over the South, Abdul Kareem's clients come from Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and other countries, some of whom buy his instruments wholesale.

He agrees the crowded, noisy high road in Triplicane is not the best location for his music shop, but he stays on as it has been well established there for a long time. He feels interest in and knowledge of music in the community is on the up-trend. He is hopeful that his son, who is in his second year at college and is learning music, will continue the family tradition.