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The stamp of an avid football fan

Fr. Tom John's World Cup is brimming with stamps

COLLECTOR'S CHOICE Fr. Tom John and some of the stamps from his football collection

Father Tom John loves waiting for the mail. Fr. John tarries for the brand new set of commemorative stamps to come from Germany. "A friend of mine has promised to send them and they must be on the way. It will be a definitive addition to my collection. I hoped that it would reach me before the event began. Now I'll be able to get them only during the course of the event," says Fr. John who has a collection of 200 stamps on football from 102 countries.

What makes these thematic collections interesting are the stamps from countries such as Mongolia, Paraguay, Bangladesh and Zambia. "There is this stamp from Monaco that has the picture of the historic Wembley Stadium and there are others, like the whole set brought out in South Korea during the last edition of this event. When countries like Bangladesh have come out with beautiful World Cup stamps, India has not yet published one. The only Indian stamp on football that I have is on the Mohun Bagan centenary," says Fr. John who was in Kerala on his annual vacation.

Not just a hobby

He has 46,000 stamps at the last count, so he has stacked some at his home in Pala.

"The collection began in a small way. I must have been in class nine. Sorting and arranging stamps according to specific themes came much later. My first thematic collection was on Christmas. Now I have stamps on various themes like flowers, animals, cars, sports personalities, locomotives, Greek paintings, political figures, festivals, maps, cricket, important days like Women's Day, independence day of various countries and so on. My favourite is, however, my stamps on Princess Diana. I have around 1,000 stamps on Diana that traces every stage of her life."

Fr. John is now assistant vicar at a small church in a small village called Malam Naotoli, a few kilometres from Chainpur in Gumtla district in Jharkhand. Fr. John has plans to conduct an exhibition of his stamps.

"It will cost me at least Rs. 1 lakh to put up all my stamps and a couple of sponsors have promised help. But for this I'll need time. I'm getting old, but I will do it soon," he says.

K. PRADEEP

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