exhibition titled, ‘My Own Collection’, where people of different age groups
showcase their various collections. It is a hobby collection exhibition where
several hobbyists exhibit their collection whether it is coins, first day
covers, chocolate wrappers, and various other vintage collections.
The exhibition will conclude today, May
18, and will be open from 9.30 am to 6 pm. This annual exhibition has been held
for eight years at the Goa Science Center, Miramar. Their aim is to give a
chance, a spotlight, to those people who love collecting various objects when
people think it is a useless hobby.
This year, there are 14 participants who
are showcasing their collections, Robin Scaria, Swarup Shanbhag, Pravin Pai
Lotliker, Kabir Yunus, Aslesh Kamat, Neela Prasad Bandare, Dr M R Ramesh Kumar,
R R Radha Bai, Brigadier Arvinder Sawhney, Jose Proenca, Dr Firoz Badesab,
Shaikh Samirruddin, Vinayak Shanbhag and Shloakh Junwarkar.
Robin Scaria has put up two collections,
that is, the coin collection and antique collection. The coin collection
displayed coins from different eras. People will know how coins looked back in
the day. The second collection is ‘My Antique Collection’ which shows the
evolution of watches, cameras, phones, music systems like radio and gramophone.
Swarup Shanbhag has
displayed a collection of Indian currency with notes right from Rs 10 to Rs 500
along with notes that have been printed with an error.
A collection of fridge magnets has been
exhibited by Pravin Pai Lotliker. Many souvenir magnets that feature famous
landmarks are normally made from resin as they have a surprisingly detailed
sculpture of monument or icon the magnet is depicting.
Kabir Yunus’
collection shows the evolution of phones, how phones looked previously and how
they look now. He also has a collection of coins and currencies.
After drinking water,
people normally tend to throw the bottles out, but Aslesh Kamat has been
collecting various water bottle wrappers. There are some brands which people
now do not even know about.
Dr M R Ramesh Kumar who is the
ex-scientist of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has shown a variety of
post cards and stamps of India. The collection’s name is ‘India’s Rich Culture
Heritage’. It shows the various stamps and postcards from different areas of
India. Under each exhibit, there is information about the respective post stamp
and card.
‘Goa – A philatelic journey’, by R R Radha
Bai. She has put up postcards specifically on Goa. Under every postcard there
is information. The postcards have pictures of famous places in Goa.
Brigadier Arvinder
Sawhney exhibits chocolate wrappers, telephones, rock art, stone hounding and
much more are displayed, he has put up his ‘ Miscellaneous Collection’ of
different toy cars, bottle caps, key chains, international match boxes, match
boxes of India. He has also put up various soap wrappers, chocolate wrappers,
storage devices, radio, camera, scented erasers, pencil boxes, mobiles, binocs
and mineral stone.
Jose Proenca has been
collecting Indian coins as well as International coins. You will get to see
currencies from different countries. You can
see how the earlier notes and coins look like.
Dr Firoz Badesab has
a collection of match boxes and currencies. There are dozens of match boxes and
numerous coins displayed. Some of these match boxes are not even to be seen in
today’s time.
Mobile prepaid and sim
cards have been collected and displayed by Shaikh Samiruddin. The exhibit not
only show different brands but also shows sim cards and mobile prepaid has
evolved over time.
First day cover and coins on the life of
Queen Elizabeth II has been exhibited by Vinayak Shanbhag. Every cover shows
her journey. Vinayak has also displayed Portuguese coins which were circulated
in India and also commemorative coins of sports, war and other various covers.
“I have been collecting since my childhood, when I was in Class 6 or 7, but
professionally, I began recently. My father had a restaurant in Maharashtra, I
would go along with my father to the restaurant and there I saw different types
of coins, and got attracted to that,” says Vinayak.
Vinayak later came to Goa and he also runs
a restaurant in Panjim. There, he used to approach foreigners and ask them for
their country’s coins, and he would collect that. “I am also a member of the
GPNS for almost 3 or 4 years now. I have displayed my whole collection and also
collected many more things,” he added.
Various brands of chocolate wrappers have
been put to display by Neela Prasad Bandare. Brands like Cadbury and Nestle and
much more. “These chocolate wrappers displayed were eaten only by my son. I
thought that since everyone loves chocolates including me and that there are
different brands, I decided to collect them. I began my collection journey
about 8 to 9 years back because of my son, Pratik Prasad Bandare. He too loves
collecting stamps and coins and I thought I too should start collect
something,” said Neela.
Shloakh Juwarkar, being a Pokémon fan, has
a huge collection of Pokémon cards. There are different types of Pokemon cards
displayed. There is also a stamp collection exhibited. Shloakh Juwarkar is the
youngest participant to display his collection.
