Keeping history alive through philately

A 43-year-old city resident, Narinder Pal Singh, who has been collecting stamps from the age of 13, is now a proud owner of extraordinary stamps. Mechanical engineer by profession, Singh has a range of extraordinary stamps made up of gold, silver, silk, plastic, leather and khadi with him.

A resident of Gandhi Colony of Model Gram area, Singh has more than 20,000 stamps in his collection. He used to get the stamps from stamp exhibitions and dealers. He also got some stamps in exchange of stamps.

Booklet stamp is also included in Singh’s collection. The booklet stamp is a book of eight pages.

Besides, Singh has 6D stamp issued by Finland, football stamp, made from football material released by Austria and embroidery stamp issued by Austria. Singh has also collected CD stamp released by Bhutan in 2006. The stamp is a small CD consisting history of emperors of Bhutan. The CD can be played in any CD player. India has released a khadi stamp on Mahatma Gandhi, and Singh has this stamp in his collection.

Singh said, “People usually get surprised on watching these stamps. They ask me that from where have I collected these stamps?”

“The stamps that are liked by the people most are postal stamps with fragrance. India had released such stamps with sandalwood, rose and jasmine fragrances. Similarly, Belgium had released a chocolate stamp in 2013 and it smells like chocolate,” he said.

Singh showed concern over the hobby of postal stamp collection. He said the hobby had enhanced the knowledge of individuals, but the computer and mobile phone era had diverted the attention of students and youth from it, he added.

Singh said, “Moreover, the postal department is not doing enough towards it. The stamps released by the department used to take more than six months to reach post offices, then how will people obtain them.”

Singh specialises in collection of stamps on Nehru family, Sikhism and space technology. Apart from this, he has a vast collection of Sikh coins, weapons, handwritten manuscripts, Sikh relics, cameras, keyrings, bottles and matchboxes.

Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com/