The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : His collection houses the whole world

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

His collection houses the whole world

His book collection rivals that of a library. His house is a treasure-trove of postcards and stamps. "My house is small but it has the world inside," M.V. Sharma, this passionate book collectors tells J. Malarvizhi.

His over-5,000 strong collection includes gems such as a lithographed first edition of the Indian Constitution, carefully bubble wrapped, with signatures of the first parliamentarians. Kamaraj signed with pencil, Mr. Sharma points out.

He is just a few years older than the book. Born on January 26, 1946, Mr. Sharma belongs to Amalapuram, but has lived in Chennai since early childhood.

Trained as a mechanical draughtsman, he worked in several private firms before taking up aquaculture.

He started collecting in the 1970s. "Every place I visit, I look out for books," he says.

That has helped him acquire technical encyclopaedias of 1910, a copy of `Representative Men of Central India' with photographs of all the kings of Central India in the early 20th century and the coronation issue of the Illustrated London News.

Focus on Indian history

His focus has always been on Indian history. He is glad to own `Vestiges of Old Madras 1640-1800' with pictures of great historical value. The oldest book in his collection, `People of Abyssinia', 1869, is not of equal value, he says.

More than 6,000 postcards tell stories of distant times and countries from within their snug plastic covers.

An English dandy strikes a pose on a card of lace, the Hindu gods adorn cards printed in Germany for Indian clients and embroidery has added style to others.

The most fascinating one is a `singing picture' that has instructions to the user: `Play at 45 rpm.' The grooves are barely visible in the picture of a castle on the other side of the card that can be played on a gramophone. The song, `Whole Lotta Woman', a single by country music phenomenon Marvin Rainwater, was perhaps a hit of those times (the 1960s), Mr. Sharma speculates.

His stamp collection has crossed the one-million mark and has become large enough to start dealing in stamps. The entire collection of commemorative stamps released to mark the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981, besides India's earliest stamps are his most-prized acquisitions. Rare books on stamps and old Indian coins are his other interests.

Autobiography

He has begun work on his autobiography and dismisses the cost of building his collections. "These things give pleasure to the mind. Money cannot buy happiness. In any case, we have enough for our needs," he says.

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