Walking into Umesh Jadhav’s humble flat in suburban Kandivali is like time travelling, with pieces of the past in the form of postage stamps, picture postcards and artefacts from around the world in every corner.
You will have to mind your step as you gingerly make your way through a maze of books, Buddha statues, collections of cricket and WWE cards, Japanese dolls, paintings, lighters, beautiful perfume bottles, watches and coins.
“My house is a mini museum and whoever wants to visit is welcome, it’s an open house. Whenever there is a programme in the housing society, my friends bring visitors to admire my collection,” said the 65-year-old retired Central government officer.
Jadhav’s collection boasts around four lakh postage stamps and 80,000 picture postcards and artefacts collected over the last 50 years.
The sexagenarian’s love affair with stamps started when he was 15 and the first stamp he collected was of Switzerland with Helvetia written on it.
“I initially sourced stamps from friends and relatives, but once I started earning, I spent nearly 30 per cent of my income on expanding my collection of stamps, postcards and artefacts. These are all my prized possessions, this is my gold,” he said.
At the age of 15, Jadhav had 3,000 stamps, and in his days studying at Siddharth College in south Mumbai, he came across stamp dealers.
“Once I joined philatelic societies, I realised the value of stamps, some of which cost Rs 10,000. This got me excited and I started focusing on my collection,” he said.
Jadhav has exhibited his collection at various programmes and won medals.
“I first exhibited my collection titled ‘Atlas – A Book of Maps’ in 1994. Each stamp in the collection depicted maps. I won a bronze medal in my first attempt at the Nehru Centre and have participated in philatelic exhibitions ever since. Over the years, I have won 12 medals, including seven bronze, four silver and a gold medal,” he said with pride.
The oldest stamp in Jadhav’s collection is the 1841 Great Britain (GB) Queen Victoria Red Brown, a set of five imperforated stamps, worth around 1300 British Pounds (Rs 1.30 lakh).
“I also have a collection of Bombay picture postcards, which is very special to me. The city is my jaan and I want to hold a special exhibition to showcase my Bombay collection,” he said with a huge smile.
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