Hitting the right notes

Pic/Atul Kamble

As a child, Husain Lehri would spend hours at the family owned Super Bookhouse in Colaba, lost in the stacks. Although the 50-year-old store offers academic literature, and titles on urban planning, architecture and design, Lehri wasn't so interested in the words within. It's being around a stack of new books that was mesmerising.

"You know, how that peculiar scent [of books] prickles your nose. I enjoyed that sensory experience as a kid." Lehri, 37, went on to work at the bookstore, learning budgeting, order dispatch, inventory management, sales and of course, manning the counter. "Despite nosediving into the technicalities, the place always held magic [for me]."

He thought books were his first and last love. Little did he know that years later, a chance trip to Nimbin, a village on the Gold Coast, would lead him to another passion - the mouth harp. "I took a break in 2006 to study filmmaking in Australia. While I was there, we made a trip to Nimbin. It's a hippie town dotted with indie shops and some breathtaking views of the forest." At a flea market held there, Lehri noticed a man selling a musical instrument that looked like a screwdriver. It had a mesmerising sound. The Vietnamese danmoi or mouth harp was fashioned from a solid piece of brass. He and a friend bought a piece each. On returning to Mumbai in 2008, the danmoi languished in his cupboard. "A couple of years later, I met a school friend, Kenroy Sequiera, who knew how to play the mouth harp. Thanks to him, I finally knew what to do with the danmoi."

Husain Lehri says the mouth harp is easy to play and has the ability to produce a wide variety of sounds and beats

Today, Lehri runs Ministry of Harps (@ministryofharps on Instagram) out of his Bandra home, a fledgling music venture. It's here that he teaches students across age groups how to play the mouth harp. The plucked mouth instrument consists of a thin metal tongue fixed at one end to the base of a two-pronged frame. "The sound is organic; you use your mouth as the acoustic chamber. By changing the shape of your lips, you can create different pitches. When breathing in and out, the air stream amplifies the notes," Lehri explains.

Although it's believed to be one of the oldest instruments, possibly dating back to the 18th century, not many have heard of it. Lehri has strangers walk up to him when he plays by the beach or at a promenade. "They are intrigued by the distinctive, twangy sound and are eager to know all about it. Its pocket size makes it less intimidating. And for an instrument that small, it does pack a punch." For students who wish to own a piece, Lehri imports and sells the instrument.

In Yakutia, Siberia, the mouth harp is the national instrument. In Rajasthan, the shepherds use it to communicate with the sheep. They call it the morchang because one of the mouth harps has a peacock design on it; chang refers to the sound made by the instrument. Since the instrument is hand made with what he calls "a lot of TLC", it's with the same care that he hopes to spread the love for its music.

The bookstore hasn't taken a backseat, though. "I decided to devote equal time to both; I spend four hours at the shop and four at home with the harps." At the shop, Lehri has staff helping him out, while the instrument business is a one-man show. He says while the two businesses may appear mutually exclusive, he can see the parallels. "Both are linked to artistic passions and have the potential to bring people together. The kind of books we sell can never go out of fashion because there are no substitutes for design books. You can't really turn them into ebooks because they are reference material.

Architects and planners want them on their coffee table to browse and seek inspiration."

His third interest - filmmaking - has taken a backseat, though. Although he worked on the team of Singh Is Kinng and an unreleased movie by Sagar Sarhadi starring Amruta Subash and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, he never got around to pursuing it professionally. "After I returned from Australia, my father needed help with the bookstore. I chose to stick around because it felt right. Sometimes, you have to takes sides. Although the harp business is my baby, I'd say the bookstore is still my first love."

The pandemic, he admits, has challenged the equilibrium he had struck between both lives. "We do get enquiries online for some titles, but there is no staff at the moment to sift through the collection and hand it to the e-commerce delivery executive." But having a finger in more than one pie has its advantages. A re-lockdown is his cue to devote more time to music.