BENGALURU: Rezwan Razack, who is known for collecting Indian currency notes, is no stranger to celebrities and dignitaries visiting his museum – the Rezwan Razack’s Museum of Indian Paper Money. But not very often does he get visitors like the governor of the Reserve Bank of India himself.
His most recent guest was Shaktikanta Das, governor, RBI, who visited the museum on March 25. Das was in the city on an official visit, and was accompanied by his wife, Lopamudra Das, and R Gurumurthy, the regional director of RBI, Bengaluru.
Razack personally hosted Das and took him around the museum. “He was calm and collected and was not in any hurry. He went through the entire space with great interest. He had a lot of questions and was quite impressed at the way the museum was set up,” says Razack, who is also the managing director of the Prestige Group.
Earlier Razack had invited Das to be the chief guest during the launch of the museum. But due to a busy schedule, Das could not make it. When he was in the city this time around, he made it a point to visit. In 2017, Das had also launched Razack’s book One Rupee One hundred years 1917-2017.
Even if one deals with currency on an everyday basis, s/he might not know the detailed history and trivia behind them. “Das was particularly interested in the early banknotes. Those were notes that were used before the RBI came into existence in 1935. Before that the early banknotes came from the Bank of Calcutta, Bank of Bombay, and Bank of Madras,” he says, adding that Das was quite fascinated hearing all the stories.
“After the Sepoy Mutiny in 1957, the British Government took over. The first thing they did was set up a currency department in India...and passed a law that all forms of currency should come from the government and not from banks. He was quite happy to see the transition in the currency scene,” says Razack, adding that the first note came with a portrait of Queen Victoria which was followed by King George V.
The other notes that captured his interest were paper currency notes from Portuguese India and French India also. “He was really patient and seemed pleased with how the day turned out,” says an elated Razack, who takes his passion quite seriously. “Paper currency could soon be a thing of the past, so my collection is a story that speaks about the transition,” he says.