Colonel Vembu Shankar has been collecting autographs for over 30 years and plans to continue for many more. He is a member of the Autograph Collectors Club of India (ACCI), which has more than 3,000 members spread across the country aged between 15 and 70 years. There was a gentler pre-paparazzi time when celebrities were kinder and autographs made them human and approachable. In the Autograph Age, handwriting mattered and the flourish of a signature reminded you that you owned something special and you were something special, too.
The Autograph Collectors Club of India has now taken it upon itself to make nostalgia real by inspiring youngsters to take up the hobby of collecting autographs by holding webinars for students from Class VII to XII. Participants can check out the treasured possessions of veteran autograph collectors and feel their excitement of wrangling an autograph from an actor, sports star, politician or other celebrities.
According to Amarjeet Singh, Joint Secretary, ACCI, it is the only such club in India, which promotes the art of autograph collection. “I teach children the basics of an autograph kit—cards, paper and markers of different colours,” says the retired Chennai-based Colonel who enjoys conducting seminars for students about the autograph game.
The collector’s bug bit Shankar in his teens. He started by acquiring stamps and coins. He soon realised that collecting autographs was more appealing since each one captures a bit of the autographer’s personality.The young Shankar wrote to celebrities in India and abroad, and was overjoyed by their responses. His high came when Clint Eastwood wrote back with a signed photograph. Over the years Shankar has amassed a huge collection of over 10,000 autographs ranging from legendary footballer Pele to Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu.
The Colonel’s recollection of getting Pele’s autograph details the amount of preparation that goes into getting a superstar’s memento. In 2015, when the Brazilian football legend landed in Kolkata, Colonel Shankar called out to him in Portuguese (which he had practiced for the purpose), waving a caricature of Pele, which the army officer had specially commissioned for the occasion.
In 2013, when Sir Vivian Richards was in India for the IPL as an advisor to the Delhi Daredevils, Shankar was told that the batting legend would meet him at a hotel at 9 am. Hours passed, and he kept waiting with no sign of Richards. Finally at 9 pm, 12 hours later, he spotted Richards entering the lobby. The meeting was for 9 pm and not 9 am! The two hit it off well and ended up chatting, with Richards clearly impressed by the collector’s patience.
The Colonel’s webinars emphasise the importance and monetary value of autographs. He says that bagging an autograph requires planning and patience. “The economics of it is important. For example, you must examine whether it is worth travelling to a particular place and spending all that money to get a particular autograph,” Shankar points out. Autograph or selfie? The Colonel believes that autographs capture a slice of the celebrity’s personality that a selfie cannot.