Philately - the collection and the study of postage stamps. It is a serious hobby for quite a few and is widely acknowledged by many as the king of hobby. Like any other kid, during his young carefree days, I too used to collect postage stamps. But then it was not so serious and over the passage of time, I not only lost the interest and inclination to collect these stamps, but also lost the collection. A couple of decades later, I came across an article on Postcrossing in a newspaper and the concept of sending postcards to a complete strange in a remote place in the world and in return getting one back from someone somewhere excited me and I signed up for it in October 2015. I started received a lot of these postcards and that was when I started observing the postage stamps affixed and slowly the passion returned, but not with a full bang.
In May 2016, Postcrossers in Bangalore got together and held an exhibition displaying postcards on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This exhibition was thrown open to the public for them to learn and hopefully get them to join this hobby of sending postcards. It was in this exhibition that I made new friends like Col. Akhil sir, AD, Som, Prashant, Sandeep, Harpreet, Keshav, Meera Ma'am, Sanober ma'am, to name a few. Some of them apart from being stamp collectors, they are also coin collectors. Some have shown their collection and they inspired me to take this up a bit more seriously.
But there are two of them who stand out who have inspired me and in some ways spoilt me too. One is Som G, who has a fabulous collection of railway related stamps, Slania engraved stamps, Europa, SEPAC, Antarctic expeditions related stamps, and what not. Not just stamps, but he also loves to collect books and journals related to stamps. He loves his collection and the passion he has is evident when he shows his collection to me. He has inspired me to do something in this field, theme wise. Sometimes he does forward me his spare stamps and thus spoils me a lot more than one should. An awesome guy and I'm glad to have met him and we hang out on most Saturdays for lunch when time permits us. His son, aged 5, also loves stamps and I hope he takes after Som one day and also take it to greater heights.
The other is an aunt who I have known since I was in my kindergarten days. She is my best friends' aunt. As I've known her from toddler days, I too call her in the same way that my friends call her Sri atte (father's sister). She is also an avid collector and she is well known in certain circles for her thematic collection on Musical Instruments, Traditional toys, Postboxes, Animals and Birds amongst many other themes. She inspired me to participate in a recently concluded philatelic exhibition held in Bangalore (in July 2017) and my theme was Postboxes. As they say, it's a beginners luck I happened to win a special prize in that event for my display of 3 frames on postboxes around the world. Thanks to her, I won something that I never thought I would win.
In May 2016, Postcrossers in Bangalore got together and held an exhibition displaying postcards on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This exhibition was thrown open to the public for them to learn and hopefully get them to join this hobby of sending postcards. It was in this exhibition that I made new friends like Col. Akhil sir, AD, Som, Prashant, Sandeep, Harpreet, Keshav, Meera Ma'am, Sanober ma'am, to name a few. Some of them apart from being stamp collectors, they are also coin collectors. Some have shown their collection and they inspired me to take this up a bit more seriously.
But there are two of them who stand out who have inspired me and in some ways spoilt me too. One is Som G, who has a fabulous collection of railway related stamps, Slania engraved stamps, Europa, SEPAC, Antarctic expeditions related stamps, and what not. Not just stamps, but he also loves to collect books and journals related to stamps. He loves his collection and the passion he has is evident when he shows his collection to me. He has inspired me to do something in this field, theme wise. Sometimes he does forward me his spare stamps and thus spoils me a lot more than one should. An awesome guy and I'm glad to have met him and we hang out on most Saturdays for lunch when time permits us. His son, aged 5, also loves stamps and I hope he takes after Som one day and also take it to greater heights.
The other is an aunt who I have known since I was in my kindergarten days. She is my best friends' aunt. As I've known her from toddler days, I too call her in the same way that my friends call her Sri atte (father's sister). She is also an avid collector and she is well known in certain circles for her thematic collection on Musical Instruments, Traditional toys, Postboxes, Animals and Birds amongst many other themes. She inspired me to participate in a recently concluded philatelic exhibition held in Bangalore (in July 2017) and my theme was Postboxes. As they say, it's a beginners luck I happened to win a special prize in that event for my display of 3 frames on postboxes around the world. Thanks to her, I won something that I never thought I would win.
I guess from then on, I'm become an avid collector, taking baby steps when I can. Meeting fellow philatelists, looking at their collections and understanding their journey, their stories and their advises, I too have become a sort of a thematic guy, though I think I'll need to cut down the themes I'm collecting at the moment for I seem to be all over the place. So what are my themes for collection? Please follow the blog : My Philatelic Themes. If you do have stamps on these themes, do let me know and we can swap.
VG
23.Sept.2017
VG
23.Sept.2017
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