Little things...

Perpendicular to the bustle of shops selling sequined salwar kameezes on Seppings Road, 10th Street is relatively quiet. In front of house #13, a narrow building indistinguishable from its neighbours, behind a silver-plated carriage, three boys are combing a goat.
This is the office of Master Horses, one of the few remaining locations where you have the option of hiring a horse.Or horses. Or horses and a carriage.
Azimullah Sharief, 19, is looking after the operation today. "We have 15 horses and five carriages, and they are out every day," he says. Today, some of the horses have been hired by a wedding party. "The others are at stables on Tannery Road."
"My grandfather started this business," he says. His grandfather, the late Abdul Jaffar Sharief was a foreman at IISc, who started the horse rental business in 1972. "Remember Sholay? Those were our horses," he says. "Nowadays, we don't get much business from Hindi films." Kannada films? He rattles off a string of names, including 'Nagavalli', 'Jogayya' and 'Chenamma IPS'.
"We even provided horses for some English films." When asked for names, he goes in and brings out a much treasured and framed newspaper clipping. It is a decades-old copy of The Times of India, written after his grandfather had provided some horses for David Lean's cinematization of EM Forster's 'A Passage to India'. Lean's company was so happy with the way his grandfather handled the animals that they gifted him a coach and four horses after filming completed. "My grandfather got paid Rs 1,000 a week and we got Rs 200 daily for feeding the horses. Nowadays, we spend Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per week just to keep the horses fed," he says.
"The charge is Rs 2,000 for three hours for a horse. If you want a horse and carriage, the rate is Rs 5,000 for three hours. Two horses and a carriage is Rs 10,000," he says.
"Nobody knows horses like we do. Even the vets tell us - 'You know what to do, what medicines to give' when the horses fall ill," he says.
"We can even get you a camel. A camel is Rs 3,000 for three hours. We'll send a minder for any animal you hire." How many camels do they have? "We have sixty."
What else? "We have a band, we can provide you a band. Haathi chahiye tho mangaa dethe hain," he grins.
Gift from film crew
There were trainers from Chennai and Mysore as well, but David Lean's film crew were so happy with the way my father handled horses that they gifted him a coach and four horses after filming completed
Khalid Sherief | owner, Master Horses