Philatelic exhibition draws 4,000 visitors

The first day of the National Philatelic Exhibition (Inpex) 2013 is turning out to be a crowd puller, with over 4,000 footfalls being registered on Thursday. “We are receiving a good response; the footfall will definitely soar during the weekend,” said Kapil Gogri from the Philatelic Society of India (PSI). Incidentally, philatelists, who had missed out on buying scented stamps back in 2006 — when the last exhibition was held — will now be able to buy it at the show. These fragrant stamps were printed by the India Post only in 2006. The stamps are available in three fragrances — rose, sandalwood and jasmine. In 2007, Bollywood actress Preity Zinta had also launched rose scented stamps. However, many philatelists, who were not members of the philatelic bureau of the India Post had to return empty-handed, as the stamps were sold out immediately. “I have a collection of various stamps — right from Penny Black, which is the first stamp of the world, issued by the United Kingdom. My uncle gifted his collection to me, when he learnt of my interest in philately. From this exhibition, I bought stamps with all the three fragrances,” said Shamim Mohammedi, a senior citizen, who visited the exhibition on Thursday. Another visitor Prasan Lakhani added, “It is nice to learn that so many people are still interested in postal stamps, despite it being the Internet age. Usually, people don’t prefer postal services, but stamps reflect the history and culture of any country.” The postal department does not have any pl-ans to come up with more of these scented stamps.