Bidar: Students of schools in rural areas had a great day out in Bidar on Friday. They moved around, with mouths half open in awe, at the stamp exhibition-cum-sale that was organised on Karnataka College campus. The exhibition will be open for three more days.

The exhibits included stamps, first day covers and commemorative brochures from over 60 countries. It seemed as if history textbooks came to life on the exhibition frames. Apart from stamps on subjects such as nature, leaders and culture, there were special varieties such as My India, Father, Sons and Daughters, paintings, unity in diversity, ships, postal advertisements, movements of tribal people, events that changed history, stamps with errors, and stamps brought out by the Nizam dynasty of Hyderabad.

Stamps printed over a long range of time were there. Those issued by the Nizam as long before as 1871 drew the most crowds. The Bradbury Wilkinson and company of London made their plates. They were printed at the Hyderabad mint, it was informed.

The tonga tin can mail and the sad story of the postman who was devoured by a whale, stamps about Rowland Hill, who pioneered stamps, and those issued about Uncle Sam, the only floating post office in the world, were part of the section on the evolution of the postal system.

Erroneous stamps such as the one on Dandi march which shows Gandhiji wearing chappals with two stripes on one foot and three on the other, and Nizam's stamps without the important wordings "Sarkar-I-Nizam" drew stares and smiles.

The first stamp on the 12th century reformer Basaveshwara, stamps on Guru Nanak and on the Bahamani kings attracted people from Bidar.

Sharanappa of Ghodwadi primary school asked his classmate Shivaraju whether the half-moon shaped "thing" on the board carrying a date of 1934, could also be a stamp. His equally innocent friend replied: "It could be. Because all others are."

The exhibition organised by the department of posts had rare collections by some of the most senior philatelists in the country such as R.G. Sangoram.

Air Officer Commanding J.S. Dhillon inaugurated the exhibition. He said that he was a keen collector of stamps and walked miles to get a particular stamp once.

Post Master General (North Karnataka) H.K. Sharma said holding exhibitions is one way of spreading awareness about Indian culture.

He said the department was trying to bring out its Philately motto of "collect stamps, collect knowledge."

Director of Postal Services (NK) Charles Lobo said philatelic stamps were the highest revenue earners for the government in countries such as France and Bhutan. I have seen 3-D stamps and those made of gold, silver and even wood, he said. Superintendent of Posts D Kalyan Rao, Deputy Superintendent Mangala Bhagawat, Chief philately Counsellor Shamsundar Ekbote, counsellor Dayanand Swamy, and others were present.

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