How far would you go to surprise your mom on her birthday ? Arvind Kumar Pai has come up with an incredible answer to this query. He just got his mother’s name entered in the Limca Book of Records as a birthday present.
A post card that Arvind Kumar Pai sent from Kochi to his mother, Renjitha Bai, to wish her on her 55th birthday has entered the Limca Book of Records.
The post card has been recognised by the Limca Book of Records for using maximum number of stamps, a total of 322, on an envelope through the Speed Post Service.
“It all began with a thought to mark the 55th birthday of my mom, who stays in Alappuzha, with a special fete,” said Arvind. “My father passed away two years ago and my mom and sister are the only family I have. I thought about making her birthday special. I am not a member of any philately club but had a collection of stamps, including some rare ones. So I thought of putting them to good use,” Arvind Kumar said.
Arvind pasted the stamps on the envelope in a way that it read ‘Happy Birthday Amma.’ The envelope bearing the stamps worth `79, was sent through India Post, with the permission from Limca Book of World Records, on November 17, 2013.
“Though it may sound quite breezy, the task was not so easy to execute on a 58-cm-long and 44-cm-wide envelope,” said Arvind.
“The difficulty was to fix 322 stamps on an envelope, to read ‘Happy Birthday Amma’. I had to paste as many stamps as possible, so I started searching for extremely rare stamps, like ones with denominations of paise - 2, 5, 15, 25, and 50. To add to the fun, I pasted some scented stamps too,” he said.
The Limca officials took note of the achievement and after seven months to conclude their verification process, on May 2, 2014, has marked the post as a record in the category of “Human Story” for “most stamps stuck on an envelope.”
For Renjitha Bai, the announcement came as a double delight. Apart from the birthday gift, the post has brought her a world record too.
Also, the whole turn of events was a curious coincidence of crucial dates for the family.
“It was pure coincidence. If you look at it, 322 is my birthday, i.e. March 22. We recieved the intimation from Limca Book of World Records on May 2, which was also my father’s second death anniversary,” said Arvind.