The stamp of the artist
N. KALYANI
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Meet philatelic artist Chitta Ranjan Pakrashi, whose designs have gone all over the world.
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Photo: V.V. Krishnan
ART IN STAMPS Chitta Ranjan Pakrashi in New Delhi.
When you get to know the effort that goes into designing a stamp, there is a sense of wonder. And then when you learn that an octogenarian is at it, with unflinching zest, while another has just entered his sixth decade doing it, you are amazed.
Yes, for Chitta Ranjan Pakrashi, who has to his credit 50 postal stamps that he has designed, it all began way back in 1955 when he participated and won an award in an all-India stamp designing competition.
The tales and details he narrates for each of the stamps he has designed are indicative of how passionately he has worked. And still works! And you wish, heart of hearts, that the gentle and creative designer will continue his philatelic art.
What is the work that goes into designing a stamp? The theme and other specifications are stipulated by the postal department. Once commissioned to design a stamp, he says, he engages in extensive research regarding the theme. It entails visiting libraries, museums and other organisations and authorities providing authentic information. Based on the research, he comes up with an apt design.
“Thumbnail sketches of the layout are then made. And then the complete design is given a finished shape, with colours in full detail: a very clearly defined design for the printer to copy. This is a four to six times larger format than the actual stamp size,” elucidates Pakrashi, a highly respected designer in philatelic circles in India and abroad.
He describes how he designed his award-winning first stamp that was issued as the two anna Buddha Jayanthi (1956) stamp. The concept was supposed to be conveyed without showing the face or form of the Buddha. “Therefore I portrayed a stylised pattern of the peepal tree with the light of the full moon shown through special light and shade effects. The stamp was designed entirely with spray work using a spray machine,” says the designer who has a commercial art background.
“Stamp designing is a specialised art,” avers Pakrashi, who is also on the panel of designers of United Nations Postal Administration. The aesthetic element and the intricacy in the design stand out clearly in his work.
It was the designing of the Congress Centenary (1985) series of four stamps that involved the most intricate work, recalls the veteran. “Sixty-four Congress presidents right from the beginning were to be shown in chronological order. I procured the photographs of the presidents from the Gandhi Darshan Museum. Then, with line drawings I showed 16 presidents in each stamp! The stamp was released as a setenant: four different stamps printed on a single sheet.”
Commemorative stamps
The commemorative stamps designed by Pakrashi for the Indian Postal Department include, among others, those which were issued for important events such as Gandhi Centenary (1969), ‘100,000 Post Offices in India’ (1968), Universal Postal Union Centenary (1974), Congress Centenary (1985), Asian Games (1982 and 1990), Quit India-Golden Jubilee (1992), Centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s Address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions (1993) and 50 years of the United Nations (1995). Stamps issued to coincide with the INPEX (India National Philatelic Exhibition ) in 1982, 1986 and 1993 and the World Philately Exhibition in 1988 were also designed by him.
Also to his credit are a series of three postal stamps issued by Laos coinciding with Jawahar Lal Nehru’s centenary (1989) and a postal stamp issued by the Government of Mauritius to commemorate the 2nd World Hindi Convention (1978).
Besides stamps, designing First Day Covers of a number of postage stamps form part of his kitty of creative philatelic art.
Pakrashi, an accomplished artist, also creates oils, acrylics and watercolours, with a fine sensitivity, nature being a recurrent theme.
On display till this week at the National Philatelic Museum were both the stamps designed by him (from his private collection) and his paintings.
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