CHENNAI: From collecting stamps to collecting postcards, there are a wide range of hobbies that people develop, but unlike the regular collectors, Veerasamy Das has been collecting Bibles over the last 20 years.
At the second Bible expo in the city, Das displayed over 100 bibles that he had been collecting over the years, including the largest handwritten Tamil Bible in the world. Besides this, there were Bibles in over 20 languages from across the world and also different versions of the Bible depending on the different eras that they were written in.
Instead of just displaying the Bibles this time around, Das thought he would make this expo more interesting by organising a record breaking event where 1,646 people from around the city would write a page each of the 1,646-page Tamil Bible. Within two hours, the record was created!
The record-creating effort will continue tomorrow with 1,646 women writing on Saturday and 1646 youth writing on Sunday. Das said this was not only for the record but to spread the word that it was not just enough to read the Bible but also to experience it.
On his large collection of Bibles, Das said that over the years he has worked for God and helped to spread the joy of reading the Bible. In his effort to spread the word he has managed to collect all these bibles from friends. His most precious one is the Bible from King James’ times. “It has been a passion for 20 years and I only hope to spread it,” he added.