It is such a cool hobby. It either reminds you of places, people or objects you have come into contact with or predicts places, people or objects you will come into contact with. I know it’s silly to put it that way, but that is how I view my relationship with stamps.
Let me give you some examples.
Look at this 2010 stamp from my collection.
It is a stamp of the CAG of India. At the time, I did not even know of CAG or it’s functions. The buildings in the stamp had no relationship or relevance to me. However, within a couple of years, I would live in and love the building on the rightmost corner, Yarrows, I stayed in the building in the middle ( the guest house of CAG is in the CAG building, Delhi which is the picture) and attended my UPSC interview, visited the Gorton castle building and the Kolkata Office too. When I revisit this stamp, I feel so happy. I was part of the CAG (IA&AS)
Let’s look at another example.
These stamps depicting the Panchantantra tales take me back to all the fun I had reading the Malayalam version of the stories as a young kid. It was one of the first books I ever read.
Here is Central Bank of India, from where I financed my education.
While in Nagpur for my training, I visited the birthhome of Dr. hedgewar, the founder of RSS. The first thing about him that came running to my mind was this stamp. Same goes when I visited the samadhi of Tilak in Chowpatty, Mumbai.
Stamps are just like books. They are portals to knowledge. I can confidently say that there is scarce a hobby that can expose you to such diverse fields of knowledge, and human endaevour like Philately. I feel an organic connection to every stamp I come across. Something in me tells me that I should own it, and I instinctively go on and try to aquire it.
In an age when internet was not there, sometimes they sprang surprises like this. I was allowed to not just look, but exhibit it in my school Philately club exhibition. Doubtless, my stall attracted a lot of attention. No censures at all. And I studied in a St. Joseph’s!
Sometimes the sheer beauty of stamps stacked in an album is rewarding enough to make me collect them. Look at this page from my album. Such a common stamp, but such a beauty.
Sometimes, it is the prospect of money that attracts me. I think that in future, a stamp might appreciate in value and then I can make a killing from having invested in it. Like this millennium stamp of India. May be I won’t benefit from it, but my future generations would. It is an inheritance, something that I can pass on to my children .
The immense pleasure that I derive from these small windows of knowledge and in their study and the surprise hidden in them ( as in their surprise entry into my life) urges me to collect stamps.
You wouldn’t believe how often these stamps spring a surprise on me. I just took the above picture of India’s millennium stamp and above it was a stamp I had not paid much attention to before. This one
It is a bird called Rosy Pastor, which is a bird seen in arid areas of North India. Very recently Kerala Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had mentioned this bird in a speech. He said that this bird is making inroads in Kerala these days, which many a media reported as an indirect jab to BJP making inroads in Kerala. Blew me away that I had the stamp of that bird in my collection.1