The original toy story

On closer look I realise that the sparkle in his eyes comes not from nostalgia alone... a stream of tears threatens to spill out as Satish Sundra, CEO of one of the country's oldest toy shops "" Ram Chander & Sons "" talks of the shop that shaped him. "People are born with a silver spoon, we were born with a toy spoon in our mouth," he says.

Tucked away in a corner of Delhi's Connaught Place, the toy shop has been the "banyan tree" of Indian enterprises, tracing its roots back to 1890 when Sundra's great grandfather first opened its doors into a tiny toy shop in Ambala called Ram Chander & Brothers (after Sundra's grandfather and granduncle).

When his granduncle broke away from the family business, it was rechristened Ram Chander & Sons, bringing under its umbrella five generations of the family. In 1935, the shop in Ambala gave way to the one now in Delhi.

There was a time when the toy shop intelligently, directly targeted its consumers "" by transforming into a creche by day. "Kids used to be all over the shop, playing with toys and keeping us busy," recalls Sundra.

It was a role Sundra didn't mind playing... owing largely to his modest upbringing. He remembers with amusement the times when as a kid he'd bike all over the city delivering toys to people.

At times, to his delight, deliveries to the Pataudis and Modis yielded delightful returns like a chocolate and sometimes even four annas. "Those days getting those four annas was like being handed the entire Reserve Bank," he laughs.

Though the creche no longer exists, Sundra and his son Amit have strived to keep the humility, heredity and tradition alive through the years... home delivering toys even today.