This is the story of two Ahmedabad based doctors - Hiren and Namita Shah - who can be best described as ‘crazy collectors’. Hiren, a paediatrician with his wife, Namita, a gynaecologist collect antiques, art pieces, artefacts, and of course, locks, clocks and peacocks. Their journey in the wonderland of arts, antiques and artefacts started, when they moved into their new home in 1999, while looking for old seasoned timber and antique furniture to decorate their new home. In the process they got exposed to the world of old doors, windows, jharokhas, and so on. Curiosity and an unmistakable passion for conserving old and beautiful objects pushed them further and further towards curating astute and avid collections – finally motivating them to open the doors of their home to visitors by 2003.
With each passing day, they were becoming more and more passionate for collecting piece of our heritage, fascinated by the art and craft of our ancestors. In a process, they became determined for preservation of our rich heritage, although on a small scale! This determination sparked many ideas and opened many doors and as they say, their journey took them to unknown, unexplored terrains. Their story is like a jigsaw puzzle, where one thought led to another – and fit in well together.
Hiren Shah was always fascinated with puzzles right from his childhood days and that took him to the world of trick locks and puzzles, combined. His collection of trick locks started with one incident, which happened in a small town near Amreli in Saurashtra. At an antique dealer’s shop in search of old furniture, he saw a trick lock in a corner. As he curiously looked at the lock, the shopkeeper told him that he has failed to open it despite multiple attempts and looking at Hiren, he said - “if you open this, I will gift it to you” and in no time, Hiren managed to open it! As promised, the shopkeeper gifted him that trick lock – thus starting a new pursuit for the passionate collector. Today he has a collection of 3,000+ locks out of which 500+ are trick locks, which can be opened only if one knows the tricks and secret settings. This fascination for puzzles has made him the largest collector of locks and trick-locks in the world! Not surprising then that Dr. Hiren Shah is the only Indian to be part of International Puzzle Party and is invited in various global forums to talk about his collection. ‘Docs Locks’ – as he calls them – get a pride of place amidst their displays.
To view the entire article Click Here
