Stamp on Samrat Ashok to be released today…

 

Commemorative Stamp on Priyadarshi Samrat Ashok

 

 

The release of the commemorative stamp on Samrat Ashoka was scheduled on 2^nd August 2015, but owing to the National mourning followed by the sad demise of former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, it was postponed. This stamp will now be released today on 24^th August 2015 in a function to be held at Vidyapati Bhavan Patna.

- Pradeep Kumar Malik – Patna

Ashoka Maurya ( 304–232 BCE), commonly known as Ashoka and Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in the west to Bengal in the East and covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The empire's capital was Pataliputra (in Magadha, present-day Bihar), with provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain.

In about 260 BCE Ashoka waged a bitterly destructive war against the state of Kalinga (modern Odisha). He conquered Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had done. He embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. "Ashoka reflected on the war in Kalinga, which reportedly had resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations." Ashoka converted gradually to Buddhism beginning about 263 BCE. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia, and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha. "Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity."Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator. In the Kalinga edicts, he addresses his people as his "children", and mentions that as a father he desires their good.

Ashoka's name "Aśoka" means "painless, without sorrow" in Sanskrit (the a privativum and śoka "pain, distress"). In his edicts, he is referred to as Devānāmpriya (Pali Devānaṃpiya or "The Beloved of the Gods"), and Priyadarśin (Pali Piyadasī or "He who regards everyone with affection"). His fondness for his name's connection to the Saraca asoca tree, or the "Ashoka tree" is also referenced in the Ashokavadana.

H.G. Wells wrote of Ashoka in his book The Outline of History: "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star." Along with the Edicts of Ashoka, his legend is related in the 2nd-century Ashokavadana ("Narrative of Ashoka", a part of Divyavadana), and in the Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle"). The emblem of the modern Republic of India is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka.

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New Special Covers

 

MANANEEYA EKANTHJI JANMA SATHI PARVA - Kanyakumari

MANANEEYA EKANTHJI RANADE (1914-1982),  the spirit behind the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu, dedicated his life when he was in his college, for the service of India and the Indian people. He constructed Vivekananda Rock Memorial on the mid sea-rock, off Kanyakumari seashore, to perpetuate Swami Vivekananda's historic meditation on the Rock on 25th, 26th and 27th December 1892, during swamiji's birth centenary in 1963.

 

Golden Jubilee – Holy Crtoss College – 12 January 2015

INDPEX - II, 2015 - Indore Society for Mentally Retarded , Indore – 10 January 2015

INDPEX II ,2015 - Seth Thakurdas Ji Choithram Pagarani – Indore –8January 2015

Steel Authority of India – Bokaro Steel Plant – Bokaro 13 January 2015

25 Years of The Pentecostal Assembly School , Bokaro – 14 January 2015

- Sreejesh Krishnan – Trivandrum : email : sreejesh.nt@gmail.com

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Tributes to RK Laxman, the great cartoonist of India

 

R K Laxman was a cartoonist, journalist, illustrator and humorist. For decades, he showed the Indian citizen who we are. He holds some of the highest national and media accolade for his exclusive work on the “The Common Man”. R K Laxman’s great sense of humor gave birth to extensive ingenuity in political satire. Men with like him are rare to find.He was best known for his creation The Common Man, for his daily cartoon strip, "You Said It" in The Times of India, which started in 1951.The stamp issued by India Post  celebrates The Times of India, with the iconic cartoonist R.K.Laxman's "Common Man" .

India Post released a postage stamp on 13 November 2013 on 175 years of The Times of India,  featuring “ Common Man” cartoon made by RK Laxman .

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Laxman (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist, started his career as a part-time cartoonist, working mostly for local newspapers and magazines. While a college student, he illustrated his elder brother R K Narayan's stories in The Hindu. His first full-time job was as a political cartoonist was for the The Free Press Journal in Mumbai. Later, he joined The Times of India, and became famous for Common Man character.

The greatest cartoonist  passed away on the evening of January 26, at the Dinanath Mangeshkar hospital in Pune, where he was on life support for the past few days. He was 93.Born in 1921 in Mysore, Laxman had no formal training in cartooning but the work he put out over decades was sheer genius. He began by drawing for local papers, and illustrating the stories of his famous elder brother, novelist R K Narayan, while still at college.

After stints at various publications and even a film studio after his graduation, he came to Mumbai in the 1940s. After a brief spell at the Free Press Journal, he came to the Times group in 1947 and stayed there for the rest of his glittering career.

The recipient of numerous awards, among them the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Magsaysay Award, Laxman's fan base ran into millions. He never let them down, drawing two cartoons a day, always brilliant, with consummate ease. His Common Man, created in 1957, was the symbol of India's ordinary people, their trials and tribulations, their little joys and sorrows, and the mess they found themselves in thanks to the political class and bureaucracy. But despite the sobering reality of this, there was never any rancour in Laxman's cartoons. His humour was always delightful, and no one could hold a candle to his brushstrokes.He will always be remembered as the greatest cartoonist of all time.

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National Youth Day

 

Today is National Youth Day. It is celebrated in India on 12 January on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.

In 1984, the Government of India declared and decided to observe the birthday of Swami Vivekananda (12 January, according to the English calendar) as a National Youth Day every year from 1985 onwards. To quote from the Government of India's communication, 'it was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.

     

Swami Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendranath Datta, was born in an affluent family in Kolkata on 12 January 1863. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began, "Sisters and brothers of America ...," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.

 

SriLanka Post issued  some magnificent stamps to commemorate 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda . Here are some stamps issued by India Post and Sri Lanka Post.

 

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New stamps from Poland

 

Turkish-Polish - Joint Issue

600 years of Turkish-Polish diplomatic  relations

 

Date of Issue : 28 November 2014

Polish Post issued a beautiful souvenir sheet on 600 years of Turkish-Polish diplomatic relations". It is a joint issue by Poland and Turkey.

 

450th birthday of William Shakespeare celebrated by Polish Post

Date of Issue : 19 November 2014

On occasion of 450th birthday of William Shakespeare Polish Post released a special stamp and  postal stationery. The stamp depicts of the illustrations to the works of this great writer.

Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated in Stratford-upon-Avon and around the world every April, and this year is bigger than ever as Shakespeare turns 450 years young. Here in Stratford the streets were overflown with music, pageantry and drama as the birthday weekend brings together performers, artists, and ambassadors from around the world in a vibrant celebration of the life and works of William Shakespeare. 

Postal stationery

Club News

Vadophil

Latest issue of Vadophil, No. 140, Quarterly News Bulletin of Baroda Philatelic Society is out. For details pleas visit Baroda Philatelic Society, Email: info@vadophil.org or visit website : www.vadophil.org

 

KARNAPEX 2015 , Bangalore ( 16th to 19th  January 2015)

For dealer’s booth application form for Karnepex2015 Please contact  at the below address  :

Assistant Director (BD)

For Chief Postmaster General

Karnataka Circle, Bangalore-560 001

Ph . 22392537 / 22353393

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Birth Centenary of Begum Akhtar

India Post  issued a postage stamp to commemorate Begum Akhtar on  2 December 1994 which was withdrawn shortly after the  issue being printed with water soluble ink.

Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, also known as Begum Akhtar (7 October 1914 – 30 October 1974), was a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, and Dadra, and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously) by Govt. of India. She was given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals). Her year long Birth Centenary Celebrations started on 7th October 2014.

India Post must honor this greatest Indian Singer of all time on postage stamp . It is quite surprising that her name is not in the tentative list of stamps scheduled to be issued  in 2014.

Tributes to Begum Akhtar

Birth Centenary Commemoration of Begum Akhtar Set of Commemorative Coins Released

New Delhi: 7 October 2014 : The year-long birth centenary celebrations of noted classical singer Begum Akhtar began today. In an impressive function held here today Union Culture Minister Shri Shripad Naik released a set of commemorative coins of Rs.100 and Rs.5. Noted singers Dr. Rita Ganguly (Dadra), Shri Shashank Shekhar (Thumri) and Smt. Prabhati Mukherjee (Ghazal) gave an impressive performance on the occasion.

On completion of 100 years of this versatile genius, the Government of India has decided to commemorate the occasion. With this end in view, a National Implementation Committee (NIC) under the Chairmanship of Union Culture Minister was constituted to chalk out programmes and activities that may be taken up during the commemoration year.

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International Day of Non – Violence

 

 

 

Tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahdur Shastri 

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

-Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Jai Jawan Jai Kissan !!

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Second Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a leader of the Indian National Congress party.

Today is Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahdur Shastri . Philatelic Tributes to the great leaders of India. The UN declared 2nd October as International Day of Non-Violence . It is a is a global observance '.

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Exclusive Exhibition on the Indian National Flag

‘Indian National Flag’ was born in its present form on 22^nd July 1947".

The National Flag of India is a horizontal rectangular tricolour of deep saffron, white and India green; with the Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly held on 22 July 1947, when it became the official flag of the Dominion of India. The flag was subsequently retained as that of the Republic of India. In India, the term "tricolour" almost always refers to the Indian national flag. The flag is based on the Swaraj flag, a flag of the Indian National Congress designed by Pingali Venkayya.

The flag, by law, is to be made of khadi, a special type of hand-spun cloth of cotton or silk made popular by Mahatma Gandhi. The manufacturing process and specifications for the flag are laid out by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The right to manufacture the flag is held by the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, who allocate it to the regional groups.

Exhibition on the Indian National Flag,

14th to 20th August 2014,  Kolkata

 

For the first time in India, the Kolkata Regional Centre of the ICCR, Govt of India  is hosting a unique exhibition from 14 - 20 August 2014 on the Indian National Flag in commemoration of the 68^th anniversary of its adoption. The exhibition curated by Mr. Sekhar Chakrabarti features a rich collection of the National Flag symbol on myriad objects sourced from a plethora of expected and unexpected sources that are pieced together to reconstruct the history and the evolution of the National Flag. The exhibits will bring alive the process by which the ‘Indian National Flag’ was born in its present form on 22^nd July 1947".

 

 

Philatelic Tributes to  Great Singer - Mukesh

Today is Birth anniversary of India’s great playback singer of Hindi Films , Mukesh. This special Post is a tribute to him whose songs have special place in the heart of all music lovers !! 

A beautiful song by Mukesh to share with all……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVeDXzv7AQU

Mukesh Chand Mathur  22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976), better known as Mukesh, was an Indian playback singer of Hindi movies. He, alongside Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, and Kishore Kumar, left such an impact on the Hindi film industry that they are still remembered to date. Amongst the numerous nominations and awards he won, his song "Kai Baar Yuhi Dekha Hai" from film Rajnigandha (1973) won him the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer. Mukesh is also popular as being the voice of legendary actor Raj Kapoor.

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Philatelic Tributes to Nelson Mandela

 

   

(18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) 

Philatelic Tributes to the Great Leader

Today is Birth Anniversary of Nelson Mandela the great leader of South Africa.He was South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon   died last year at the age of 95.  Various Postal administrations have issued commemorative postage stamps to celebrate the life and legacy of the anti-apartheid icon. I am sharing here some stamps issued on Nelson Mandela as a philatelic tribute to the great leader .

A copy of a postal stamp with a portrait of Nelson Mandela, launched at the Mandela Foundation for the 24th anniversary of his release from prison, in Johannesburg, South Africa."Printed in silver to reflect the richness of Mandela's legacy and his stature, the miniature sheet features a portrait of Madiba in duotone

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela   was born on 18th July 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa to a Thembu royal family.On April 27, 1994, he was made the first President of South Africa elected in a fully represented democratic election. Mandela was also the first black President of his country.

  

His government focused on throwing out the legacy of apartheid by ending racism, poverty, inequality, and on improving racial understanding in South Africa. Politically a believer in socialism, he served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997 and adopted new Constitution of South African in 1996 that prohibits all discrimination, based on language, religion, handicap and sexual orientation, not only on racism. Internationally, Mandela was the Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999.

Mandela received more than 250 honors, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Order of Lenin. He is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father").

Mandela was sick for several years during his retirement. He was hospitalized in late summer of 2013 from a continuous lung infection and  died on 5th December 2013 in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg from the lung infection. He was 95 years old.

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