Misha has a rich collection of women-only stamps

Misha Aggarwal, 36, celebrates womanhood by collecting women-only postal stamps and she is the only woman to do so in the holy city. She feels that these commemorative pieces recognise a multitude of services and aspects of women.

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Her repertoire of stamps on women included almost all postal pieces released after Independence. The number is close to 500 and she has the entire collection. She says: “I have methodically maintained them under different heads like singers, female protagonists, social workers, politicians, freedom fighters and others.”

Displaying the postal stamp of Mira Bai, she says it was first stamp released on a woman in Independent India in 1952. The stamp cost was two anna.

A commerce graduate, she enthusiastically showed a set of four stamps celebrating the contribution of women in the Army. The set costs Rs50 as it includes two stamps worth Rs15 per piece and two values Rs10 each.

Acknowledging the contribution of women in the Hindi film industry, the Department of Posts released several stamps on female protagonists. Her collection includes postal stamps on Madhubala, Mina Kumari, Nargis Dutt, Nutan, Devika Rani and Leela Naidu. Stamps on singers highlighted the contribution of Begum Akhtar, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Allah Jilali Bai and MS Subbulakshmi.

Narrating an interesting incident associated with the stamp on Begum Akhtar, she said it was released in 1994 at a cost of Rs 2 per piece. However, after realising the mistake of having used water soluble ink in their production, the department soon withdrew these. A drop of water on the stamp is enough to erase the ink. Among the connoisseurs, the worth of stamp is much more. They are ready to shell out Rs 500 for a piece. Among women politicians, commemorative postal stamps were released on late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi, Vijay Raje Scindia and Sarojini Naidu. She has all three postal stamps released on Mother Teresa in 1980, 1997 and 2016. Among poetess, stamps on Subhadra Joshi and Subhadra Kumari Chauhan adore her collection.

Among freedom fighters, she possesses stamps on Rani Lakshmi Bai, Bhikaija Cama, Aruna Asif Ali and Rani Rasmani.

She has a special liking for those stamps which celebrate different shades of feminine life. These stamps do cover changing fashion trends among women. So, previous stamps capture women wearing ethnic wear and recent ones contemporary fashion trends.

For instance, a set of four stamps released in 1980 brought out brides in ethnic wears of the Kashmir valley, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Another set of four stamps released in 1997 commemorated the rural women in ethnic wears from Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Ladakh and Kerala. This year, the department released a miniature sheet of stamps in which feminine fashion trends were highlighted.

Neeraj Bagga