By IANS,
Lucknow : A bank employee who has collected over 5,000 postage stamps of nearly 200 countries in the past three decades is mulling an idea of setting up a philatelic museum as he wants to “motivate and revive the lost love of children” in the activity.
Gold plated stamps of Qatar and embossed stamps of Bangladesh are in the rare collection of 40-year-old Anil Katiyar, a resident of the Chowk locality in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district, some 240 km from Lucknow.
“I developed the hobby of stamp collection when I was 10. My father, who was also fond of collecting stamps, encouraged me and it is only due to his motivation that I have a vast collection of stamps today,” Katiyar told IANS on phone.
“I have even collected stamps from dust bins of post offices,” he added.
Katiyar has approached the postal authorities to set up the philatelic museum.
“The officials were taken by surprise when I told them about my collection. They visited my place and later assured me of all possible help for establishing the museum,” said Katiyar.
He said people nowadays are losing interest in collecting stamps. “I attribute it to the technology age. The hobby is now on the verge of extinction in the age of SMS and e-mails. Today letters have lost their significance.”
“My plan to set up the museum aims to revive the lost love for postage stamps, particularly among children. You can catch them young and motivate them to collect stamps,” he said.