Stamp of Approval

Chandra a public relation professional with the Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers,has been collecting stamps since the age of ten.“ I used to collect whatever stamps I could from my friends,relatives,neighbours and even post offices”,he recalls.

He was deeply influenced by the Communist regime in the state and soon started researching and reading about the Russian Revolution and the other communist movements all over. He was also associated with the All India Peace and Solidarity Organization (AIPSO) which frequently organized poster exhibitions,paintings and silent protest meets all over Bengal and the country regarding several international issues.

“Comrade Lenin’s work and his endeavor to move Russia into one of the spearheads of Communist Movement is a glorified chapter in world history. The whole emergence of USSR as a super power after World War II was based on Lenin’s hard work and principles for a just and equal society free of exploitation”,he adds.

It was this fascination that drew him to old photographs and stamps depicting several momentous occasions associated with Lenin and his work in Kremlin. In 1988 he got a chance to visit the Seoul Olympics where he displayed a collection of stamps on Moscow Olympics,1980. It was only there that he met similar enthusiasts from all over the world. He became closely associated with a Russian friend Dimitri who encouraged him to go further with his collection and research on stamps on Lenin.

Later in 1990 the opportunity to visit Armenia,still a member of erstwhile USSR opened several corridors for him. Representing the country in an International Philatelic Exhibition he met several others from countries like Poland,Hungary,Czechoslovakia,Bulgaria,Romania,Cuba which by then had already published several worth mentioning stamps,First display cover,Commemorative Collection and miniature ‘Pictorial cancellation’ on Lenin. “I maintained the contacts through the Russian Embassy and exchanged several collections with fellow enthusiasts over East European countries. The chance to revisit Russia in 1996 gave me an opportunity to display my collection at Moscow which was well received. I also received some rare collections like the Birth Centenary stamp (1970),a stamp showing Lenin in a library in Poland and the now famous Lenin’s frontal image which was released as a stamp”,he adds.

As the crowd flocked in after the inauguration by Mr Biman Bose,Chairman,Left Front,it was evident that Kolkata’s tryst with Communism will thrive to exist. Although Mr Chandra denied that this exhibition had nothing to do with boosting Left front and Communism’s image in the state where the winds of change are blowing thick,with the presence of several Left Front leaders and intelligentsia,nothing should be said more. The simple philatelic enthusiast can only hope that Subhra Chandra’s exhibition and his philatelic collection does not stop here and explore many more uncovered terrains.