Not for love of leisure

Nurturing a hobby is one thing and using it to spread knowledge is quite another. It is the latter that International Collectors Society (ICS) of Pune is more interested in. With over 25 record-holding collectors, the volume of their collections is only challenged by the knowledge these people possess.

In keeping with their motto of ‘knowledge through hobbies’, the society has been reaching out to various schools in the city and introducing children to the basics of collecting various items. According to ICS president, SR Bhat, children and their curiosity is what makes them prospective collectors.

Often, it is the society that contacts the schools and urges them to arrange for one session where the students can be shown the collections. All this is done for free.

“If you explain something in an interesting manner with examples, children get interested. That’s the reason we take the pain of taking our collections of various items—be it coins, stamps, shells, lapel pins—to the classrooms. It is quite a task, but worth it as children are immensely fascinated by the collections,” he says.

The set-up required by the collectors is simple. “All we ask for is one free classroom and two-three student volunteers to help us display and manage the collections. We are ready to go any distance if we get a call from the schools asking us to come over,” says Bhat.

Collector Anand Shinde works on similar lines and has visited over 80 schools in Pune, Baramati, Satara, Kalyan, Panvel and Aurangabad. Shinde has been collecting items relating to marine life for several decades now. “I have divided my collection into shells and corals, postal stamps on marine wealth, coins on sea life and matchbox labels on marine wealth. I have seen children take a keen interest in environment studies after watching these collections,” says Shinde.

Though schools are receptive towards this idea, it is the parents that show some skepticism when it comes to encouraging their child to take up the hobby. “Parents start on the wrong footing because they think it will cost a lot. But it doesn’t. We advise children to be frugal and use discarded items. For instance, they could collect bus tickets, soap covers, chocolate wrappers, used perfume bottles, bottle caps or just about anything that’s not too costly. If they are going on a beach vacation, we advise them to start a collection of shells. Basically, they need to start somewhere, so that they develop an interest in a particular subject and go deeper into it,” says Bhat.

The society members don’t stop at whetting the appetite of children. They make sure to impart knowledge on how to arrange a collection, how to collect items in a series, how to store their collections and also how to expand their collections. “The children can approach us anytime and we give them professional tips. In fact, some enthusiastic students have also held small exhibitions in their schools, which has encouraged their contemporaries to develop a similar hobby,” says Bhat.

Prisha Bhat, a student of standard V of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School, was inspired by various collections. She now has her own collection of stamps and books. "I have more than 250 stamps on themes like Picasso paintings, famous Indians, Bharat Ratna awardees and various plants and animals. I also have a collection of my own books on different topics which I want to expand now," she says.

Started in 1995 as Collectors’ Society with just seven members, ICS now has over 100 life members, many of whom are Limca Record holders and a few who have found a mention in Guinness Book of World Records.

Narendra Tole, who has recently set-up a private museum of notes and coins in Karvenagar, says that children are high on his priority. His museum houses more than 60,000 currency notes and 25,000 coins. Tole’s collection ranges from historic coins relating to Indian empires like the Vijayanagara era, the Mughal period, and the Maratha rule. He also has an interesting collection of fancy number notes.

“I have recently purchased a van which can carry 15 students. I now pick up students from their school, bringing them to the museum in the van and drop them back —without charging a single penny. Schools and parents have been extremely enthusiastic about this idea. Students who are in standard VIII, IX and X are at an ideal age to develop a serious hobby,” he says.

In keeping with this endeavour, the society now intends to start a Young Collectors’ Club in city schools in the next few years.