Tell us about yourself in general (outside of the hobby/profession e.g. family, childhood, education, etc.).

Mr. MAA: I was born on March 7th 1952 in Lahore. I have had my schooling in LaSalle High School, Multan and St. Andrews, in Lahore. I studied for B.Com in Hailey College of Commerce and MBA in Punjab University in 1975. My father was XEN in P.Railway, so we have been stationed in Karachi,Multan and Lahore because of his postings. I have two sons and one daughter.

 What made you come into this hobby/profession, when and how did you start?

Mr. MAA:  My interest in aviation dates back from my childhood, and I twice applied for GDP in PAF but could not get through. I had seen a model diesel engine in 1964 with Mr.Ilyas a friend at Lasalle. In the same days, we had a craft teacher in Lasalle who introduced projects in Balsa wood; all this and the intrigues of such a small engine started the quest for hobby. But my real experience with the hobby started in 1969 when I purchased my first engine and discovered the many aspects of hobby. I must mention the names of three friends in those initial stages, with whom I had wonderful discussions of this fascinating hobby.Mr. Ashna, Mr.Imran (Foggy) of LFC and Mr. Naimut Maseh (who had made a diesel engine himself, and also had a R/C system at that time.) We faced many problems in procuring materials during those days so we had to device clever ways of substituting materials and techniques, during this period I managed to complete my B.Com in 1973, and during the B.Com I became aware of Import and Export Business, so after B.Com I imported a first shipment of Model Engines in 1973, and our main customers were Cadet College Petaro,PAF and a Toy shop by the name of Wonderland. Meanwhile I got admission in MBA and business and studies went hand in hand, on completion of studies, because I had experienced  the problems of getting hobby material and equipment, I thought I should start a hobby shop so that people like me do not face similar problems, so I opened Hobby Lobby in Fortress Stadium in 1975.

 Please share the history of Hobby Lobby? How and from where did you start... till today?.

Mr. MAA: In 1975, when Hobby Lobby came into business, these were the days of rubber powered and control line models and there was lot of activity in constructing models, so there were lot of discussions and hobby lobby provided this forum. We were selling single channel escapement type R/C systems but we imported digital proportional R/C systems for the first time in 1976  from Futaba. Business was fine in those good old days, but not until 1977 when the Customs Collectorate made a decision whereby importing Aeromodelling goods was almost banned. We fought the case, and eventually won, but this took two years, and business was reduced to a level where I decided to move to Karachi in 1979.