Despite living in an age of emails, there still are people who are fascinated by the world of stamps. Philatelists often collect stamps featuring famous people.
With the introduction of a new scheme by India Post, people can now be featured on a stamp.
Called “My Stamp”, it consists of one stamp which has the photo of a person (that could be you!) and is accompanied by another stamp, which has a picture of a subject chosen by the person who is appearing on the “My Stamp”.
Get your theme
“My Stamp” can be used just like any other stamp for sending post in India and abroad.
The person featured on the stamp should choose the subject in the accompanying stamp from a given set of themes.
The subjects are aircraft, animals, Taj Mahal, trains, the Panchatantra and zodiac signs.
In Mangalore, Bhavana Kishore Baglodi, a student of Std X, BGS Education Centre, has featured on one such “My Stamp”.
She has a stamp with her photo on it and it can be used on letters posted to both places within India and outside. For the stamp accompanying hers, she chose “Trains”. She got the “My Stamp” about a month ago.
To get a personalised Stamp, one has to wait for the government national philately meets.
One cannot apply for “My Stamp” at other times through post offices. (Bhavana applied for “My Stamp” at a philately meet called Kerapex and she paid Rs.300 for it).
Bhavana said she got interested when a philatelist came to her house in Mangalore and brought a stamp with his photo on it.
She started reading about “My Stamps” and found that President Prathibha Patil had featured on the first “My Stamp” and had chosen her zodiac sign as the subject in the accompanying stamp.
