Page 11 - Seniorstoday March 2023

add to the collections. Collecting requires,
I recall my own journey, since childhood
to now, in an inveterate journey of
collecting everything under the sun,
prodded and propelled by child-like
curiosity and enthusiasm which has
continued unabated till now, even as I
write this. Playing cards, colourful bottle
caps, match box covers, cricketers’ photos
and albums, stamps, numismatic coins
and notes, comic books, pens, paintings
and sculptures, silver, old furniture,
miniatures, antiquarian books, ceramics,
paan-dhaan, gunpowder containers,
netsukes, jades, coral, jewellery, conches
and shells, textiles – I have seen and
collected them all in an exciting and
enthusing journey since my teens. I am
sure there are several thousand like
me in every nook and corner of our
wonderful country of a rich heritage and
everywhere else in a connected world;
art is beyond borders after all. Of course,
you also have the super rich who are into
vintage cars and heritage castles and
other unimaginable collectibles. There
are collectors known to collect fossils
and bones of extinct animals. There are
collectors of film posters, old milestone
newspapers, chess sets. To each his own
interests and likings, I would say, for
the pleasures of collecting are uniquely
personal and enriching.
While the excitement of collecting can
be unabated, there would be a point in
time when it could be overwhelming and
extraordinarily difficult to maintain and
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #45 | MARCH 2023
not just a steady cash inflow, but also a
mindset of effective cataloguing. Very few
collectors are adept at it, rather most are
insouciant. Art is also susceptible to theft
and damage. I recall my Echolac fibreglass
handbag with 3 lovely miniatures getting
stolen from my car, nearly thirty years
ago. While it had to do with my careless
driver, it was destined to happen perhaps.
Of course, I was distraught, at not just the
loss of the beautiful two hundred years old
paintings , but also the significant money
that had gone into buying them. A police
complaint was hardly of any help, except
for the rounds of the police station. Another
incident was the damage caused by termites
to my significant collection of Development
Oriented Commemorative coins, in their
original cases, issued by RBI. I could do
little about it, except stoically accept the
misfortune.
A question which will not go away is
what happens to your collections, if your
family members are not interested in
them. Collections, over a period, tend to
gain in economic value, given the rarity
and irreplaceability factors, and could be
quite a tidy sum. Should the meticulous
and expensive collection be allowed to go
to waste, as has happened in several cases,
with the heirs not knowing what to do with
them and selling them off for peanuts.
11