You walk down a short flight of stairs off the bustling lanes of Hauz Khas Village and enter what feels like a shrine to music. The underground room of Pagal Records is lined wall-to-wall with vinyl albums and vintage posters. A small turntable and mixing console sit at the front, and two bright red chairs in the centre beckon you to sit and absorb the sound. The collection spans genres; old-school Bollywood, blues, Afrobeat, electronic, hip hop, and jazz – even classic cassette tapes are preserved on shelves by the entrance. Visitors wander in from the street to listen to records of their choice. It’s a haven where anyone can linger, listen, and escape the city clamour for a while, whether or not they make a purchase.
At the heart of this vinyl haven is Abhay, the young founder, and it’s immediately evident how much he loves what he does. As he speaks, his eyes dart toward each customer stepping in. He greets everyone warmly, helps them flip through the crates, eagerly shares trivia about albums, and invites them to simply enjoy the space. You can browse for hours, sample music on the house turntable, or just soak in the atmosphere.
From Customer to Owner
Abhay’s journey is a story as winding as the grooves on an LP. ‘I grew up coming here, buying cassettes from this very store,’ he recalls. A decade ago, an Italian vinyl enthusiast (known fondly as Joe to regulars) founded Pagal Records upon noticing the lack of a vinyl culture in Delhi. It was a niche passion project; a cozy record shop in a city that hadn’t yet caught the vinyl bug. Abhay became a frequent visitor in his school days, dreaming that ‘one day I could be in a record store, just surrounded by music.’ Little did he know he would eventually own that very store.
When the founder decided to return to Italy around ten years later, Abhay heard through the grapevine that Pagal Records was up for sale. He took a leap of faith and bought the shop. ‘Opening day, I had no clue how to run a business – I just knew music,’ he admits with a laugh. Those first few months were rough. Abhay found himself learning everything from accounting to managing inventory on the fly. ‘It was very chaotic at the start. I knew the music a little, but didn’t know the business side of it,’ he says. Slowly but surely, however, he found his groove. Now, a year on, the store is finding its footing and even growing, thanks to his passion and persistence.
Curating an Eclectic Collection
One step inside Pagal Records and it’s clear this isn’t your average music shop stocking only Top 40 hits. Abhay has been deliberate in curating a unique and eclectic catalogue. Some records are imported from abroad, sourced through fellow vinyl dealers and personal contacts. Others come from purchasing entire collections from Indian collectors looking to downsize. ‘We don’t really keep the most pop records – you can get those new, cheaper than us,’ Abhay explains. Instead, he focuses on albums with character and history. Flip through the bins and you’ll find everything from rare old Bollywood soundtracks to iconic western rock, world music, and obscure gems that spark curiosity.
He proudly pulls out one of his favorites – an original pressing of The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. The record still has the famous working zipper on the jeans depicted on the album cover, a design by Andy Warhol. ‘This is the first pressing of Sticky Fingers with the actual zipper,’ Abhay grins, gently handling the sleeve. ‘If I had to pick one record from the whole store, I’d pick this one anytime.’ It’s not just about famous records, though. Abhay lights up equally for lesser-known artists, be it a lost blues masterpiece or an Afro-jazz fusion record from the ’70s. The joy for him is helping a customer discover something new and meaningful. ‘We try to keep the best albums – the ones with a story, the ones you might not find elsewhere easily,’ he says.
The Vinyl Experience: More Than Music
Step aside, streaming – listening to vinyl is a different kind of experience, and Abhay is one of the young champions of this analogue revival. ‘Every record is like a story,’ he explains. ‘We’re so used to Spotify, where you pick the one or two hit tracks and skip the rest. But an album… an album is like a movie. You have to understand why the first track is like this and the last track is like that.’ The act of holding a vinyl, dropping the needle, and absorbing the liner notes creates a connection to the music that digital playlists just can’t match. As Abhay puts it, ‘When you hold a song physically in your hand, it hits different.’
In India, vinyl culture virtually disappeared for a couple of decades, surviving only among dedicated collectors. But recently, there’s been a small resurgence. ‘In the past year or two, I’ve seen more people buying affordable record players and starting to get why records are special,’ Abhay says. A vinyl record isn’t cheap – new imports can cost a few thousand rupees – and a decent turntable is an investment. That has kept the market limited. Many people who wander in are curious newbies; some confess they don’t even own a record player yet. ‘If you don’t have a player, the best you can do is buy two or three records to hang on the wall’, Abhay jokes. Still, the curiosity is growing. For those who take the plunge, the reward is tangible: the warmth of analogue sound, the artwork you can hold, and the patience to enjoy an album as a journey. Pagal Records provides a space to discover that magic firsthand.
Community and Open Decks
‘Mostly, we get DJs from Europe coming in,’ Abhay notes – Delhi’s reputation as a travel destination brings crate-diggers from all over. Some are even fellow record shop owners overseas, in town hoping to unearth a rare Bollywood OST or two. Abhay lives for these encounters. ‘It’s fun to meet people who have record stores in other countries. They tell you so much about their collections and scenes,’ he says.
Inside the shop, Abhay fosters a friendly, living-room vibe. A few times a month, he clears some space and invites friends and customers for open deck sessions – essentially vinyl DJ jam nights. Anyone who knows how to mix records (or is learning to) can hop on the turntables and play a set for those browsing. ‘Imagine you’re digging through records while someone is spinning something good in the background – I’d love that, right?’ he laughs.
Spreading the Vinyl Gospel
As a young cultural entrepreneur, Abhay has big plans for the future. At the core of his vision is a simple idea: make vinyl accessible to everyone. ‘Why can’t everyone have the joy of listening to music this way?’ he muses. ‘We all have the right to experience it. Why should it be that only someone who can afford it gets to do it?’ His mission is to break the notion that records are a luxury or an elitist hobby. Part of that means educating a new generation – visiting colleges, talking to students about analogue sound – and part of it means expanding the distribution of records.
Ultimately, Abhay and Pagal Records stand for a labor of love more than a business venture. In a city of millions, this humble record store is creating a small but passionate movement, one record at a time. And every morning when Abhay opens the doors of Pagal Records, he feels the same excitement he did as a kid discovering music – a feeling he’s now devoted to passing on to anyone who walks through his door.
Words Harita Odedara
4.06.2025