Imprinted in time and memory

If you are a photo enthusiast and have been in Delhi long enough, there is no way you haven't heard of Mahatta & Co in Connaught Place. It is one of the few shops that seem to have existed since forever, the facade of the shop still taking you back many decades.

But the store we see in Delhi is not the first. Mahatta & Co started in Srinagar, in pre-partition India, where Amarnath Mehta started the first photo store along with his two brothers.

They expanded to Rawalpindi and Muree (both now in Pakistan). After partition though, the Mehta's headed to Delhi to gain a foothold again and started out with a stall in the corridor in the corner of CP's D-block for a few months.

It was only later that they rented the current shop, from the Life Insurance Corporation.

Reminisces Madan Mehta, the second generation owner of Mahatta, "In the '60s and '70s colour prints used to be a novelty for people. Today, the tables have turned and we find more people coming to us for black and white prints."

The shop might now belong to a different era and Mehta himself might have aged, but what he has kept Mahatta going is its ability to adapt to change. It was one of the very first to embrace digital technology.

"It is mindboggling what you can do with technology," says Madan Mehta, enthusiasm flickering in his eyes.

And for all those wondering where the name Mahatta came from, Madan Mehta explains, "Mehta was changed to Mahatta because the British could not pronounce Mehta."