Philately

Philately (/fɪˈlætəliː/; fi-LAT-ə-lee) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps.^[1] For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare or reside only in museums. (Source :  Wikipedia)

Stamps have always enamored me since I was in my pre-teens, back in 1988-89.  Those were the days when the only sources of entertainment were television (with limited number of channels), newspapers, books or friends.   Early morning school, back to home by 1 :15 pm, have some lunch, sleep a bit, study, watch television for some time and then go to bed was a routine for us.  Stamps became a welcome change for me in this monotonous routine.  I had many friends in my school whose father or some close or distant relative used to work in gulf countries.  Naturally, they used to have letters from them which used to have stamps and these stamps used to land in stamp albums.  These friends used to have extra stamps we used to either swap or trade.  I enjoyed quite a bit of that period collecting and pasting (yes I used to paste stamps in the album :-) ) stamps.  Then came my standard tenth year and my stamp album and collection went into complete oblivion. 

My teenage years went in studying, yes I was in science stream so there was no choice.  Since it was pre internet era, we have to literally rummage for notes, books for referencing.  Life hit hard, i got into job, marriage, kid, cycle and again, not time and chance for stamps.

Fast forward 2012, I was just reading a local newspaper which had captured a picture and article detailing "My Stamp" because of which my romance with stamps got rekindled and again I got got completely drenched in STAMPS...

Due to pandemic many of us got a chance to sit down, take a break and enjoy small things in life.  I enjoyed this time with stamps, since 90% of my stamps are back in Mumbai home, I got only 10% stamps to get involved with, but I was fine.  There was not a single boring day.

Last week with a small meeting with one of my philatelic friends, Mr. Johnny Lowis, of Singapore, I realized that there should be a bit of documentation of my stamps and their stories..so here I am.  I hope to write some more in the forthcoming days.