Philately: The study of postage stamps

                                   

Philately is the study of postal stamps and their history. It involves more than just collecting stamps and studying postal history. You can be a philatelist without even owning stamps! The stamps being studied may be rare or may be residing only in museums. 

Historically, postage stamps emerged as a piece of paper denoting a specific value. 

As a collection field, Philately appeared after the introduction of the postage stamps in early 1840s. It did not gain large attraction until the mid 1850s.

SOME FAMOUS STAMP COLLECTORS: 

• Queen Elizabeth II - British queen
• Anatoly Karpov - Former world chess champion

A FAMOUS INDIAN STAMP COLLECTOR:

• Damayanthi Pittie

The president of the Philatelic Congress of India, Damayanthi Pittie has a formidable collection of ink and hand stamps that define Indian Postal history. 

FIRST DAY COVER:

A First Day Cover (FDC) is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day of the issue. It is a kind of Birth Certificate. 

TYPES OF STAMPS:

• Definitive stamps - It is issued year after year and the quantity produced is not capped.

• Commemorative stamps - It is issued commemorating important events, prominent personalities in various fields, etc. It is not continuously issued. 

Last year's Corona (COVID -19) Pandemic is also recorded in the word of postal stamps by way of issuing a commemorative stamp saluting our corona warriors (Iran stamp).

METHODS OF COLLECTING STAMPS:

• Gift from elders
• Buying from post office
• Buying from stamp exhibition
• From used postal covers

I have also made a small beginning to collect stamps, thanks to my grandfather, Sri Lakshminarayana K, who gave me his collection of stamps and has introduced me to this wonderful hobby.

FARMERS - THE BACKBONE OF OUR SOCIETY

 Food is a factor which is very necessary for humans to live. And who are the people who provide us with this much needed food? It is, of course, our farmers. 

Farmers play a very important role in our lives. The vegetables, fruits and pulses that they grow are used in every dish - from the most fanciest dish, to the most commonly eaten one. If there were no farmers and the appropriate food was not to be grown,  how could we live?

     

The farmers work selflessly for us, day and night, and thus make up the backbone of our society. 

When a farmer's crops are harvested and ready to be sold, a middleman buys it from the farmer first. Then, that man deposits the yield to the market. From all the money which is paid by the customers for the supplies, only a little part of it is given to the farmer, the man who has worked so hard to grow the crop well and the rest is kept by the man who bought it from him! Is this justice? 

Agriculture depends completely on nature. If there is a lot of rain and floods occur, the farmer's crops suffer. If there is no rain and droughts occur, then also it is his crops which will suffer. Thus, a farmer cannot be sure about how his yield is going to be in a particular year.   

But, for us, be it drought or rain, we get proper food all the time. It is all because of the efforts of those selfless farmers all over the world that we are this healthy and well.

Since these kinds of situations have started occurring, farmers are quitting agriculture and moving to the towns and cities in search of a better occupation. So, it is all up to us to keep them happy and well.

Also, our second prime minister, Shree Lal Bahadur Shastri has rightly said. "JAI JAWAN, JAI KISAN!"

                                             

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar was born on 28th September  1929 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Her parents were Dinanath Mangeshkar and Shevanti Mangeshkar.

 Her siblings are Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, Hridaynath Mangeshkar and  Meena Khadikar.  Asha Bhosle is also a great singer like Lata Mangeshkar.

  Her singing career was inspired by the legendary singers, K L Saigal and Noor Jehan. And now, she is the greatest playback singer of our country. Her first classical stage performance was at the age of 9 years. Her first Hindi film song, ' Pa Lagoon Kar Jori Re ' was from the film 'Aap Ki Seva Mein' released in 1947.

As an actress, her first Marathi film was 'Pahli Mangala Gaur' [1942] and her first Hindi film was 'Badi Maa' released in 1945.

Lataji's favourite colour is the soothing white, her favourite season is winter , her favourite time of the day is dawn and she is passionate about diamonds. 

She loves to rejoice Diwali with her family and friends. Mumbai, Paris and London are home to Lataji.

She is an ardent fan of Cricket, football and tennis. Photography and cooking are close to her heart as favourite hobbies. 

Madan Mohan, S D Burman, Shankar-Jiakishan and Lakshmikant- Pyarelal were her favourite music directors. She made an excellent pair while singing duets with the greats like Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and Mukesh.

In 1969, she was conferred upon with the 'Padma Bhushan', subsequently with the ,Padma Vibhushan, in 1999. In 1969, she had refused to accept the Film Fare Award , for the noble reason that henceforth new talents should be considered for these honours. In 1974, Lataji's name was included in the Guinness Book Of World Records. 
  

In 1989, she was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award and on 21st March 2001, she achieved the highest civilian award of the nation, the Bharath Ratna.

Some of my favourite songs of Lata Mangeshkar are:
1. Aye zindagi usiki hai [ Anarkali ]
2. Rasika Baluma [ Chori Chori ]
3. Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjha [ Unpad ] 
4. Aye Mere Wathan Ke Logon [ Patriotic song ]
4. Dil hum hum kare [Rudali]

Lataji is a legend and a big source of inspiration for millions of youngsters like me.  

Anuja Kamat- Raag Yaman

Ms. Anuja Kamat is a young singer. She has produced and anchored many interesting videos explaining how classical raags are used for composing film songs. Her ability to sing while explaining is very special. This video was made to see whether Raag Yaman [Kalyani in Carnatic music] has some influence on new Bollywood songs. These are the songs mainly from the '90s to the current age.

Ms. Anuja Kamat

Ms. Anuja Kamat says that she remembers her childhood when she listens to these songs and now, after learning music, notices that many of the songs are set on Raags. She also notices that 2 of the songs are based on Raag Yaman. The songs are given below:

1.Ghar se nikalte hi
Movie: Papa kehte hain
Year: 1996

A phrase in the song is on the swaraas '' Pa Re Re Ga'' which are the swaraas that tell that a particular song is based on Yaman.

2.Aaye ho mere zindagi mein
Movie: Raja hindustani
Year: 1996

By the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, with Bollywood music, popular music, which we call POP music's craze had also increased. Anuja Kamat says, that with POP music, an experimental song was composed, which introduced a very talented artist, who is not only famous in POP music, but also in the field of Bollywood and classical music.

The talented artist is none other than Shankar Mahadevan Ji. You could also have guessed the song by now, and it is Koi Jo Mila To Mujhe , from the album Breathless, from the year 1998. She noticed that the third phrase which tells us that the song is based on Yaman was found by her in the song.
''Ga Ma Da Ma Da Ni Da Ni Sa'' are the swaraas for the phrase.

Yaman has a tradition that, when  you go in the Aaroha [ ascending order], when we sing after the swaraa 'Pa', we omit it. For example, ' Ni Ri Ga Ma Da Ni Sa'. We don't sing it like ' Ni Ri Ga Ma PA Da Ni Sa'. This is the uniqueness of Raag Yaman.

Did you ever imagine that there could be a dance number based on Raag Yaman? It's not a classical dance form, but a dance in which the steps are in western style. The song is -

Pyaar Zindagi / Hey que sera 
Movie: Pukar
Year:2000

In the song, there is a phrase, which is typically based on Yaman, and is like having Yaman in a nutshell!

Now, we talk about a film-maker who is a music director himself. And, he is Sanjay Leela Bhansali Ji. Anuja Kamat also told that she had observed that in every movie of his, at least 1 song will be having the influence of Raag Yaman. Some of those songs are given below:

1.Jhonka hawa ka
Movie: Hum dil de choke sanma 
Year: 1999

2.Yoon shabnami + mashallah
Movie: Saawariya
Year: 2007

3.Hameshaa tumko chaaha
Movie:Devdas
Year: 2002

4.Aaj ibaadath
Movie: Baajirao masthani
Year:2015

5.Laal Ishq
Movie: Geliyon ki raseela Ram leela
Year:2013

Most of Sanjay Leela Bhansali Ji's films are intense and Yaman is not an intense Raag. So, to bring the intensity , in place of  Shuddha Rishab, Komal Rishab is used. Also, a new raag is created by doing this and is called Puriya Kalyaan. Immediately , the intensity increases. 

I really liked Anuja Kamat's videos and the videos are really informative on music. One of them, which I liked the most is ' ONE SONG SUNG IN DIFFERENT RAAGS' . Start viewing her videos for more!

This is the video about which the blog is written on⇧.

Unity Is Strength

The strength of working together is known as UNITY. For a person, may he be the richest, strongest or the most intelligent, it is difficult  to do his work without others' help. To prove this, I am going to start with a story...

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who had 3 sons. The brothers never stayed united or helped each other. The farmer was fed up of telling them to stay united and decided teach them a lesson. He tied up a bundle of sticks and told the brothers to break them without separating the sticks. The brothers tried and tried, but in vain. They were not able to break the bundle.

It was then that the farmer came in. He made them understand,'' The bundle of sticks were impossible to break when they were all together. But now...'' he said taking a separate stick,'' It is so easy to break  this stick because its the only one. Even you brothers are like this, if you all are together, no one can defeat you.

Thus the farmer tought his sons the power of unity.

Like that, there were only a few British in India and there were lakhs and lakhs of Indians. Had we been united, we could have sent them out of India even sooner.

Small drops of rain fill up oceans. If it hadn't been for those small drops of rain, there would have been no water on Earth.

The Earth is getting polluted day by day. If we don't join our hands and work towards conserving our environment, the Earth will get destroyed. Once again, unity is the key.

Even we, as individuals can start taking small towards conserving Mother Earth.

I believe that we WILL be able to change the Earth into how it was before!

Our experience in Coonoor

I visited O'land plantation, Coonoor,Tamil Nadu with my father, mother and sister recently.  I had a very nice experience there.  On the day we all were to leave, we left Bengaluru at 6am. We reached Mysore at 9;30am.  We had our breakfast here.  After a few more hours, we reached the Bandipur forest. We saw herds and herds of deer and elephants there. Then, we reached the Madumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.

Before entering , there was a sign that read, VISIT AGAIN KARNATAKA STATE .  I felt very sad.  I love Karnataka.And after all, it is my mother land.  Around 1;00pm we reached Ooty.  We stopped there to have our lunch.  We even bought some of the homemade chocolates of Ooty.   We resumed our journey after that.  To my delight, my father had brought a route map and told me to show the way!

Finally,we reached O'land plantation.  We were going to stay at a villa named the 'Hornbill house'.  As soon as we settled, we went to a nearby waterfall and played. At 8;00pm, a guide took us to the Estate house wherein we all were going to have dinner. When we were returning , we saw a herd of wild bisons. Luckily, the guide chased them away.

The next day, we planned to go for a treck. We had fun and came back in the afternoon.  But, the next day , we had to leave. We left early the next day and reached Bengaluru at around 9;00pm.

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce

Once there was a girl named Bhoomika who loved to have a garden full of beautiful trees and flowers.  She always irritated her father about it.  Her father used to always tell her to think if she could manage it.  But Bhoomika never thought about it nor did she stop irritating her dad.  Her father thought of observing instead of telling her.

Once her dad went to her room wherein she had said that she was doing her homework.  When he entered he saw that there were many papers littering the floor with only a few lines written in them. " Bhoomika! Please stop this." He said and went away. But Bhoomika never paid heed to his advice.

A few days later,her dad saw Bhoomika throw something in the dustbin.  When he asked what it was, she said that she was throwing broken and stained toothpicks and keeping clean ones for an activity. Her father told her to stop and went away.

A few weeks later, Bhoomika visited a restaurant with her family.  After eating a course, she used a tissue to dab her mouth.  After a while,she used another tissue wipe a stain she got on her pants.  Her father kept watching but didn't tell anything.

Finally, after 2 days,her dad called her to his room to tell her what he had observed about her.  He said," Bhoomika,I was observing what you were doing for a few days.  First,wasting papers even after my warning, second,acting silly by throwing broken toothpicks,third, taking new tissues every time instead of using the other side of the previous one, and many more. What are all these things you have wasted made of ? Trees , right. What will you grow in your garden if you don't have respect for it?"

Bhoomika said," Dad, observe me for a few more months.  From today, I will not waste things but reuse them." And finally Bhoomika ended up having beautiful pots of flowers on her terrace.

MORAL: Recycle, Reuse, Reduce.

_ A short story by Gowri N Prasad