The Hindu : New Delhi News : An extraordinary golden jubilee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 16, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

An extraordinary golden jubilee

Kunal Diwan

50 years ago: “Stamp boy” Shekhar Borker of Delhi and “Stamp Girl” Rita Malhotra of Kanpur.

NEW DELHI: It is only after a lifetime of achievements that people generally are accorded the privilege of being featured on a nation’s postage stamps. But for “Stamp Boy” Shekhar Borker, this serendipitous feat occurred when he was barely eight years old and had no inkling of the goodwill and recognition that having his picture on a two-inch square piece of paper would bring him 50 years later.

Now 58 and a senior executive with a private firm, Shekhar Borker recalls his vintage photograph munching on a banana that was featured on the first series of commemorative stamps released in 1957 on Children’s Day. “I was studying in Modern School on Barakhamba Road when a massive drive to photograph children for the commemorative series was undertaken. The photographers visited our school but I did not even realise when I got ‘snapped’. I guess I was lucky in a way as my photograph was selected from over 10,000 others across the country,” said a beaming Mr. Borker on another Children’s Day celebrated 50 years later on Wednesday.

The first series of commemorative First Day Covers released in 1957 symbolised three cardinal requirements of childhood and development: Nutrition (“stamp boy” on a banana), Education (a girl writing on a slate) and Recreation (a terracotta Bankura horse). However, the girl writing on a slate, Rita Malhotra from Kanpur, is yet to be traced. Mr. Borker reminisces how having his face on a postage stamp transformed him into a celebrity overnight.

“People used to queue up outside our Satya Road residence asking for autographs. It was fun as long as my parents allowed me to sign them, but after a while they decided that enough was enough and I was grounded and not permitted to enact the role of a self-indulgent celebrity.”

What was even more fortuitous for Mr. Borker was his chance meeting with a Department of Posts employee at a social function recently. Already famous among postal employees as the original “stamp boy”, he was invited by the Department for the release of this year’s Children’s Day commemorative stamp series.

The function, which took place on Wednesday, saw Mr. Borker re-enact his autograph signing prowess with several Postal Department employees urging him to squiggle his name on the First Day Covers.

The covers will be distributed nationwide and are well nigh collector’s items since they contain the signature of the man whose lucky visage graced the first such stamp series ever.

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