BENGALURU: Lately, M Lokeswara Rao has been the subject of envy among his peers. The retired principal chief conservator of forests and head of forest force retired in June 2016, but he has been far from idle since then. “Most people might break their heads figuring out how to spend all the new spare time on their hands but I found time to pursue my hobby – philately,” says the 63-year-old.
In the three years since he started, Rao has amassed 3,000 stamps in his collection, all themed around Buddhism. While these stamps won’t travel the world on envelopes, they will be transported to Australia for the Sydney Stamp and Coin Expo in June this year.
Collecting and preserving stamps, however, is a time-consuming hobby and Rao spends two to three hours per day pursuing it. “You have to store the stamps carefully because they can be prone to degrading. I store them in a polythene sheet in a dry area and then preserve them in an album,” explains Rao.
Picking the stamps for the exhibition was also a laborious process. Of his collection, 300 finally made the cut. The display will begin with some information on Buddhism, moving on to Buddha’s birth, his 12 deeds, the religion in different parts of the world, and sacred places around the world, before concluding with Buddhism and world peace. “It takes time to form a story through the stamps. I also have to collate information on the stamps, where they are from, etc,” says Rao.
The stamp that gave him the most difficult time in sourcing was a 1932 Bamiyan Buddha stamp from Afghanistan, which was withdrawn by the government due to the protests that followed its issuance. “After searching for two months, I found a man in the United Kingdom who was selling the stamp as part of a 10-stamp series. I had to buy all of them for $25 even though nine of them were useless to me,” shares Rao.
The philatelist finds most of his stamps on eBay, and has to wait for two to three months if it has to come from an international location. “While the stamps themselves may cost $25, I have to shell out an extra $15-20 for registered postage to ensure they don’t get lost,” says Rao. His collection also includes a Chinese stamp from 1893, the first Buddhist stamp to be issued anywhere in the world.
“Nature has always been close to my heart and Buddha has been linked with nature too. His birth, him attaining enlightenment and nirvana, they have all taken place in close contact with nature, which is why I like collecting these stamps,” he adds. As the director (Protect Your Species) of international organisation Earth Day Network, Rao says his hobby helps him spread awareness about the need for nature conservation. “Money isn’t everything. Sometimes, satisfaction and giving back to society matters more,” he says.