Offtrack: Raipur: Mail Chauvinist

He's only an ordinary driver but he has an expensive passion--postage stamps.

It is a rare stamp, so rare that it is believed there are only half a dozen specimens left in the world. Its proud owner Mohan Rao Khadotkar takes out the 1862 British Guiana (now known as Guyana) stamp from his faded album with great care, almost bordering on reverence. "The four-cent stamp can currently fetch between Rs 2.5-3 lakh in the market," he says laconically. The enthusiasm is infectious. He takes out another stamp from a ramshackle wooden cupboard. It is the world's first stamp, the Black Penny printed in Great Britain in 1840. The one-penny stamp now commands Rs 60,000. So Khadotkar must be a rich man indulging his passion. No? Only a driver? Yes, the stamp collector is a driver at the government pwd office in Raipur, Madhya Pradesh. He earns Rs 4,000 a month, supports his entire family and may be just "10th class pass" -- but he sure knows his stamps well.

When he is not driving his sahib's car, Khadotkar, an authority of philately, scripts columns for the local dailies and magazines.

When he is not driving his sahib's car, Khadotkar, an authority of philately, scripts columns for the local dailies and magazines.

It is seven o' clock in the morning, a little before Khadotkar leaves for work. Sitting on a tin chair in an old, run-down house, sipping sweet tea and trying to fight the mosquitoes, he reluctantly talks about the value of his collection. For obvious reasons he is reticent about the subject. "It should fetch over Rs 10 lakh if I try to sell it today," he says. Just the stamps kept in that cupboard? Incredible, but he is still being modest. "There are more than 30 lakh stamps there," he adds. "Even the most ordinary stamp would fetch Rs 5 each in the market."

But for an unfortunate incident in 1972 the collection would have been twice as valuable today. A group of young philatelists who had come to buy stamps from him diverted his attention and pocketed some of the rarest stamps which would now have easily fetched more than Rs 10 lakh in the market. Since that day Khadotkar has stopped displaying his collection to strangers. "It is after a long time that I am showing my entire collection to anyone," he concedes.

The hobby began in 1958 when he was a 13-year-old student in Nagpur. "I was just mad about stamps. I would beg, borrow or steal to increase my collection," he reveals. Khadotkar would visit distant places to buy stamps, attend auctions organised in Calcutta during the '60s and hunt for bargains. He acquired the Black Penny for a mere Rs 70 in 1960. With time the value of his collection increased.When he is not driving his sahib's car, Khadotkar writes columns on philately for local newspapers and magazines. "Do you know that postal stamps issued by the UK do not carry the country's name unlike stamps issued by other countries?" he asks. Why? "Because it prides itself as the first country to introduce an organised postal system."

Khadotkar struck gold in 1968 during a visit to Pachmarhi, the summer capital of Madhya Pradesh in those days. There he met an illiterate boy at the local post office whose father had inherited a priceless stamp collection from his former British employer but was obviously ignorant about its value. On being asked if he was interested in old stamps, Khadotkar could not hide his enthusiasm and readily trotted over to the boy's house. The Britisher had informed the man that the collection could some day fetch a good price. It got him Rs 500. "He demanded Rs 1 lakh," recalls Khadotkar, "but eventually settled for Rs 500." The collection had 25,000 stamps of the British Raj and its current value is Rs 1.5 lakh. What will he do with his collection? "I can sell the ordinary stamps, but I want to give the rare stamps to a museum," he replies.

Rare stamps? There is, for instance, the stamp issued by the East India Company in 1854 carrying a portrait of Queen Victoria, commanding a price of Rs 6,000 today. A commemorative stamp on Mahatma Gandhi issued on August 15, 1948, for the use of the Lord Louis Mountbatten, the first governor general of independent India, has a current value of Rs 65,000; Khadotkar bought it for Rs 55. "The stamp was withdrawn after two days since it's not permissible to issue a commemorative stamp on government service," he explains.

Are his children interested in philately? "No," he replies, "they think it is a waste of time and money." Pity. A priceless inheritance nevertheless.