The Stamp Collector

Indian Stamps

    In my previous post I wrote about sketching. As I was writing about reviving old hobbies as a way to beat the monotony of life I remembered another hobby of mine which got lost in my so called busy life. It was Stamp collecting.

Stamp Collecting is considered one of the most popular hobbies in the world though it is on the decline due to rise of emails and e-messaging. So how did it start ? the 'hobby'? well, when I was in primary school I saw my dad reading his letters from the post (not e-mails actual posts ). I saw those colorful tiny papers attached to the rather plain looking envelope. I thought it was something used for decorative purpose. I started collecting these tiny piece of decorative papers a.k.a stamps. I was very selective while selecting the ones to preserve. But once my dad explained to me about its purpose and how there were a large number of stamps related to a variety of topics I got really curious about stamps.

 I used to wait for my dad's posts to be delivered so that I could tear off the stamp from the envelope and save it in my collection. I was too young to go to post office alone and my parents were mostly busy with some important things to take me there. So sometimes I even tore of stamps from post delivered to my neighbors! they never complained. They couldn't possibly notice because I used to carefully take only the stamps and leave the envelope as it is without tampering further, before the neighbors came out and collected it. I didn't realize that it was not proper take someone else's stuff. Thus started my hobby of stamp collecting!

The State Emblem of India

Once I entered high school I met some of guys who were really passionate about stamp collecting and had invested a good amount of time and money in it. They were even part of the high school philately club. I started trading some of the stamps I had collected for different kind of stamps which they owned. Some of them were generous enough to trade some rare stamps for the easily available ones that I owned. Thus the method of collecting stamps changed while in high school.

Fauna of India

This hobby of stamp collecting died down once I started college as I didn't make time for it. I was busy with the assignments and deadlines. Now all that remains is the stamps I collected as a youngster and the memories I made while collecting it.

Some of the stamps from my collection : 

Prominent Indian Persons

My Small Collection of Indian Stamps