Tribute to Father of the Nation: Utpal Sanyal unveils varied collection of items on Gandhi

Kolkata: As a mark of tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 149th birth anniversary, Utpal Sanyal, former senior assistant director of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) on Tuesday unveiled his varied collection of items like stamps, matchboxes, notes, coins, postal stationery etc on the father of the nation.

Sanyal, who is famous for his record collection of stamps on cancer, shared his collections on his Facebook page that evoked a lot of curiosity among users of social networking sites as queries flooded his Facebook page.

"The majority of queries were regarding my collection of Meghdoot postcards. Three of these that was shared by me bear the image of Gandhiji and at the same time create awareness that tobacco is one of the primary causes of cancer, the advice on what can be done to give up consumption of tobacco items and also the various types of cancer that affects a person. Several regular postcards, inland letters, envelops having the image of Gandhiji is also in my collection," Sanyal said. According to the Postal department, Meghdoot Card service was introduced by the Department of Posts on September 2, 2002. Such cards priced at 25 paise is half the cost of the regular post card. Here the writing space, available on the address side of the regular post card, is made available for advertising in multicolor. According to Sanyal, Gandhi is one of the most visible Indian personality in the world of stamps.

Over 100 countries in the world have published numerous stamps on him among which the oncologist's collection includes stamps of Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Cuba, Mauritius, United States, Chile etc to name a few. Four postage stamps having denominations 1.5 annas, 3.5 annas, 12 annas and 10 rupees that were issued on 15 August 1948 after the assassination of Gandhi and four commemorative stamps that were released in 1969 in his birth centenary year by the Department of Posts is an integral part of Sanyal's collection. There are also first day covers, miniature sheets etc on Gandhi. It should be noted that Gandhi was honored as the first Indian to be depicted on stamps of India.

Several commemorative coins of bronze, nickel issued in 1969 of different denominations , a one rupee coin released in 1992 on the completion of 50 yrs 'Quit India' movement a Rs 5 coin that was out in 2005 on completion of 75 years of Dandi March is a part of his collection. A number of notes of different denominations released in different times was also shared by Sanyal.

Matchboxes on Gandhi that were very old and in circulation before Independence are also in his collection including one that was made in Japan.