 The first documented information system is of course the system set up by Sher Shah Suri which was based on messengers on horseback who ride across India and that was how the Grand Trunk Road it was Grand Road now it's called the Grand Trunk Road which was connecting Dhaka to Peshawar was built. Road was built as shady trees on both sides and there were rest houses at periodic intervals and that's how these rest houses over time came to be known as dark bungalows. The Indian postal system is right from the beginning of Rajas and Maharajas. Everybody has got their own courier system you know Harkaras were there, names were different. Kasits, Harkaras, Pattamars in south they were not blind they were seeing what is happening trenches were dug, walls are I mean constructed. These informations were passed over to the officers. Thereafter of course the major input came from the Britishers who set up the formal post office in India. It was not Clive who had set up the round work for the British postal system in India actually with the advent of the Britishers in India and the East India Company they wanted a reliable postal system whereby they could communicate amongst each other. The dark system actually started with that the mail carrier system but it was meant solely for the company officials for the official communication and it was not thrown open to the public but it was Warren Hastings who in 1729 for the first time set up a post office in Calcutta. The post office shifted to many rented buildings until it found its permanent home in Calcutta GPO in the year 1868. I'm talking of 1835 when Benton was there he has made a terrific change in postal system about the postage about the rate per mile that was his innovation. Two types of letters were there one you write the letter to the person in say one letter is written from Calcutta it is unpaid unpaid because after reaching the postman will collect two annas and give the letter to the party so they used to bend the envelope and read the matter and gave a reply also in brief telegraphic language means it is a total loss to the department at Benton's time it was a rule there to stop the unpaid letters all paid letters will be going. It was in the color black and the rate was one penny for certain weight and therefore it is very often called a penny black and there was also two pens blue but people still remember and call it the penny black as the first step you have to apply moisture on the reverse of the stamp and somebody said it is very it is a disgrace because you are lepping the left side of the queen really this is what was a came at that time the first times released in India and Asia were by a provincial commissioner what we would call district collector Bartelfrey in the district of sin it was a part of Bombay presidency and he felt that if he saw the labels coming from the stamps coming from Great Britain and he said why can't we have something like this in India so he introduced the stamps which are now called syndocs and they are in white blue and red color the red was more like a vaccine and that is why it's often found crack and these are these three are called the aristocrats of Indian Philakali this is originally printed in the state this is printed Nasiq the Navava Saurashtra picked up the postal service two years after the postage stamps were introduced in India and it was our last hour was the first synopsis Junagar was the first state to issue its to start his postal service in the country later on other states followed slowly slowly slowly slowly like that and later on they started with their own stamps the Bhavanagar stamp sent to Junagar this is a revenue stamp but it was sent to Junagar and used at a postage after over printing it there were British post office is also in Saurashtra because Saurashtra stamps letters only bearing Saurashtra could not go out of the state so they had to have Indian stamp a fixed so therefore there are Indian stamps were also sold in Saurashtra and which was known as a combination cover Indian and almost in all the states the rate of postage were half the Indian date the first address is printed by rubber stamp this is the stamp of 1864 is a hand stamped so hot so much like a pack stamp stamp stamp at the level I think it's a metal show Indian stamps were used in numerous places all over the world but regularly they were used let us say in Abyssinia Ethiopia British Somali land Zanzibar then a Persian Gulf these Arab countries Dubai etc etc Iraq then again they were used in Afghanistan Nepal Tibet Burma Singapore Malaysia Indonesia on this side plus over and above that it was they were used in army campaigns also it not only that we much appreciate the courage of the postal clerks and postal officials who ventured into hazardous lands as I call it unknown unknown places army when they went East India Queen Victoria's cover over printed with post India postage 2 and a 6 bytes and this cover of British India is used in Zanzibar this is from Rangoon this is a cover which itself is very difficult to get this is an airmail cover special airmail cover of Jodhda 5th period where the rate was reduced from 8 hours to 7 and a half hours and the stem and was overprinted so the overprinted cover is difficult East India Oscar of British India used from Nepal Victorian cover with foreign hours East India and one Anna East India stamps cancel with the duplex cancellation of Baghdad sometimes even the public order said by please come and open a post office the businessman of that can please said country said please come and open a post office in 1911 India became the first country in the world to officially carry mail by air and crossed five miles across the river Gemina in 13 minutes and carried 6,500 letters and 40 Oscar this is a special car carrying the picture of the airplane and his autograph and on the address side it bears the stamp and the special magenta cancellation commodity postmark a pulmonary cash it regarding the other than the airmail this is address to London so after coming to Mumbai to go by ship or water footage first parachute delivery 1934 this was delivered in Dum-Dum so it was just a commodity flight balloon observation flight pigeon graph and address was differed as speech one of the senior most aerophyll at least in the country earlier in a year probably we started off with one stamp which would continue for years then we moved to a situation post independence where we brought out I think three stamps in 1947 to celebrate the nationhood so there was a stamp with the flag of the country there was a stamp showing the emblem the Ashok's thumb and the third stamp was a stamp meant for air services from that stage we have now evolved to us about 20 to 30 stamps issues in a year but an issue may comprise of more than one stamp so when the British left India there was some there was a network of around 23,000 post offices across the country and post independence the government looked at the post office as a basic infrastructure for socio-economic development in an area so as part of infrastructure building opening of post offices was generally encouraged and currently we have some 155,000 post offices connecting India right across from corner to corner and in many places remote areas inaccessible areas it is like the only outpost of the government which is visible in the country In fact, there are a lot of human beings in the world. There are about 7,000 Chileans in the world. And most of the Chileans are from the post-war period. There are many Chileans living in the post-war period. They don't have the right to live. They have the right to live in the post-war period. They don't have the right to live in the post-war period. So, they have to live in the post-war period for 8 months. The understanding of this is that the Government of India, at a special stamp, will be able to perform all-India competitions. So, we saw the news on the cutting edge, and we thought that we would not be able to do anything about the stamp design because we don't know anything about the stamp design. But, we saw it with our own eyes. The first thing we saw was the seal. And the pattern of the leaves, and the shape of the leaves, it was very interesting to me. Before that, I had some ideas about what we could show. This is a lamp, this is a lotus, and this is a plant. The theme of the design, I will show you how to do it in detail. We took this in detail, and developed it with the help of chromosomes. We saw the colour scheme, the colour of the leaves, and the colour of the leaves. Then, we finished the final drawing. This was the final drawing that I submitted to the competition. And, the same design, it was the first of all-India competitions. And, ultimately, we finished the two-and-a-half-denominations of the stamp. So, what are the things that you have done? I did it. Friendship between countries is kind of celebrated through stamps. For instance, this is the Indo-Japan joint issue, which shows theatre dance styles, two styles, the Kathakali in India, and the Kabuki of Japan. Both are kind of masked painted faces, which figure in the dance. Then, there was the Indochina issue, which features pagodas. Mongolia shows artefacts, crafts, items. India-Mexico joint issue features folk dances of Mexico and India. We had a joint issue with France, which shows the national birds. A lot of deliberation goes into what best brings out the areas of convergence, so to say, between the societies and cultures. We are very interested in the art collection here. From one shop to another, we look at the whole industry. Our work is done by everyone, no coins, no stamps. I have seen the work done by the society, but I think it is too much. So, if we can sell this work for a little, then we will make good use of it. You mean to say, we have only one culture? We have a culture of one hundred. We have given a lot of money to the government. We don't know anything about it. We don't know anything about it. Do you want a penny black? A lot of money. We don't know anything about it. The department of post issues different kinds of stamps. The first kind of stamp is all the definitive stamps which are printed and supplied to all the post offices in the country to be used as postage actually. Then we have these service stamps, which are used by the government departments. So they are also in different denominations and they are in different colors. And these service stamps depict the Osaka and Lyon capital. Every year the department of post issues about 40 to 50 commemorative stamps and each commemorative stamp is issued on some occasion actually, on some special occasion. So this is a stamp on stamp containing two stamps on Gandhi. One of them was issued immediately after his assassination that is on 15th August 1948 and the second stamp was issued on 2nd October 1969 on his birth centenary actually. So this is a stamp on stamp which was issued actually this is called a Sovener's seat. What is this uncle? This is a Neshjupur default in Nagpur times. That was the exhibition in Nagpur. So there was an interview in Nagpur paper. It was written that a dark tiktor was connected to his life. This is very very very good. It is in the street. Is it because of your friend's stamps? No, it is not. Right from the beginning that she was interested in stamps. She used to visit us. She was staying very close to our house to meet very regularly. Meet in the sense that we knew each other. When we were married she was already interested in stamps and it is her interest infinitely and her love for me that she joined.