Mr. ABHOY BANERJEE interviewed by Abishek Jalan

Abhoy Banerjee is a prominent stamp collector residing in Jaipur. He was born in Kolkata on 1^st Nov 1950. He was brought up in Jaipur as his family moved here and received all his studies during the stay. He did M.A., L.L.M. and Diploma in Dramatics from Rajasthan University. He retired as Enforcement Officer In Employees Provident Fund Organization, Jaipur .

When Banerjee was merely a student of 8^th standard, his school principal asked him to choose a hobby apart from education and sports. He opted for philately and started collecting used stamps from 1962 onwards. Mr Abhoy is a keen collector of First Day Covers since childhood. HE joined service in 1974 and started collecting India Mint, Post India and Foreign used country wise. After 1984 he interested himself in Mint Stamp, FDC, and Miniatures etc from around the world. Till now he has stamps from around 200 countries including India, Bangladesh, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan etc. On an average he have approximately five hundred stamps each of countries like China, USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, Denmark, African and Arabian Countries alike. HE has an outstanding collection of Bangladesh and other SAARC countries.

Even though being a state level Cricketer and Drama Artist his preference went to Philately and collects stamps related to all categories of sports, athletics, cinematography and paintings of prominent artists. Being a nature lover he too collects stamps on fauna and flora. Animals like elephant & tiger and scenery beauty through stamps.

His view upon philately is that one should collect not mint but used stamps which is although hard job but not monetary gain. Otherwise, stamp collection will become game of multi millionaire but not of philately of good choice. Mint stamps easily bought from GPO’s of own nation and abroad and dealers. Used stamps can be collected only through pen friends which is the sole motto of philately. Making friends of different diversity is possible but foreign trip is not everyone cup of tea. Although this hobby is inward still it increases our general knowledge about flora, fauna, cultural and religion of different countries.As he have given around 50 years to this hobby, he advises us to keep our stamps with protective manner. To keep knowledge of each stamp we have else motto of stamp collection is finished.

During student time maximum amount spent on stamp was Rs. 100 p/m. During service he spent around 2000 Rs. Per month. He suggests  to select limited theme and complete them and then only jump to other as this hobby is endless. Mr Banarjee’s favorite stamp is 1948 10 Rs. Gandhi.