I started filling gas in lighters in 1976. I didn’t have any intention of making money. I was just interested in technical fiddling. But little by little, a kind of good business had developed. During those days, filling gas fetched good returns. There were no cheap lighters like now, and there weren’t much refilling centers, either. There also used to be shortage of gas from time to time. I remember, during 1989/90, when relationship between Nepal and India had gone cold, the Marich Man Singh Shrestha Government imported fuel from Singapore. That made my business very good.
Simultaneously, I had also started trying my hands at fixing electronic equipment such as emergency lights, telephones, and tube lights. I hadn’t had any training in this. I played
along and fixed these gadgets. There weren’t many such places in Kathmandu for such services. I did this for two years.
In 1991, my life took a new turn. A man named Ashok Rateriya came to me to get his camera fixed. He managed Kamal Emporium on New Road. I had never repaired one.
“Can you repair my camera?” he asked me.
“I’ll try,” I said.
Rateriya owned a Canon ML with a 1.9 lens. Somehow, that camera got fixed as I played along with it. Actually, its power supplier had failed. I think I charged Rs. 100 for fixing it.
Now it takes about Rs. 500-1,000 to fix a similar problem in a camera. That was the first incident that took me to this profession. I call it my luck. Rateriya still comes to visit me sometimes.
After that incident, my interest in repairing cameras grew. I immersed myself in fixing them, ignoring all other work. I haven’t taken any training till now. This is all a result of individual practice. The Nikon F3 was the most popular camera in that period. Krishna Dai and Madan Thakur were those who used the model around that time. Ratna Man and Mangal (I don’t remember his surname) were also popular photographers.
After I started maintaining cameras, I began to know more cameramen and studio owners. Shambhu Narayan Manandhar of Asian Photo Studio introduced me to the photographer of the American Embassy. They started bringing damaged cameras to me. I obtained parts required to repair cameras from Kedarnath Studio at Naradevi. Gradually, my business grew. I’ve never returned any camera because I couldn’t fix it, except one because I couldn’t get the necessary parts for it.
In 1994, J S Studio opposite the Ranjana Hall gave me plenty of work. JS took damaged cameras to be fixed at Ratnaman’s. Later, he started coming to me. An amusing incident happened at that time. Ratnaman gave me a Tamron lens camera with a damaged mount. I fixed the camera which he could not. I felt as if he was trying to test my skills. Many customers came to his shop at New Road. So he also started to give me some work.
Likewise, Prajwal Kiran Manandhar had a color photo service at Pako, New Road. R.K. Manandhar was a mutual friend of ours. Through him, Prajwal started giving me work. Prior to that, he went to Mangal and Ratnaman for repairs.
Everyone’s trust in me grew. The first lens I fixed was of an E-1 programmed Canon Camera. That was brought to me when a shopkeeper at Paknajol couldn’t fix it. Even when I sent those cameras that I couldn’t fix to other people, it would eventually come back to me. So I started handling all the jobs myself.
It just so happened once that the lens cover of a Minolta camera was damaged. I didn’t have the parts to fix it. I had never even seen that camera before. I made a paper sample entirely on my guess. Later, when they brought the original cover, it was exactly alike. I was astonished.
After that, even old cameras were brought to me for fixing. It’s harder to fix older cameras than new ones. In 1995, I opened my shop at New Road. The house owner increased the rent within six months, from Rs. 4,000 to 6,000. After that, I started working at home. But I came to know many photo studios during my short stay in New Road, which increased my market exponentially. I also collected more damaged cameras from shops at New Road.
It’s just been five years since I started fixing digital cameras. I find it easier to work now than before. We couldn’t replace parts in older cameras, we had to repair them. Now, we don’t normally have much mechanical works. More than making repairs on digital cameras, it’s about replacing the damaged parts. That makes the work easier.
To date, I must’ve repaired some 4,000 cameras. I’m completely content with my work.
(As told to Santosh Neupane)
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