Girl Child - Hooray!

Hi all. I have great news. I am now a father! We were blessed with a baby girl in the middle of this month. It is a most amazing feeling and a bit scary as we are first time parents.

Because of these, my philatelic persuits have been put on hold for the near future. But I will ofcourse be checking up on what you guys keep putting out there.

Hope you all have a wonderful year ahead and wish great health to you and your families.

Cheers,
Velu

The Indian Coast Guard

I had gone to the main post office (GPO) after a long time and found that two people were smashing down entire walls inside the Philatelic section. It seems that renovations were going on. Its always good that the postal department is sprucing up the Philatelic section, but the poor lady who sits at the desk has now been shifter to a small cubbyhole that has to be accessed by a window! A very uncomfortable perch for the poor lady, so I didn't bother her too much and came away with a few miniatures.

This is the miniature on the Indian Coast Guard. Working in the Merchant Navy and having traded on the Indian Coast for more than ten years, I must commend the Coast Guard for doing an amazing job when faced with such a mamoth task with so few resources.

The miniature is neat, but I like miniatures which have the stamps as a part of a bigger picture, which are not present here. The units on display in this sheet are the Dornier Aircraft, Chetak helicopter, Samar Class patrol craft and the Air Cushion Vessel.

To the coastguard I am personally obligated because of an incident which happened on one of my ships after I had signed off from it. One of the chaps fell in the water while rigging the pilot ladder. Unfortunately this fellow was so overweight that the rest of the complement couldn't pick him up. They had a situation where this fellow was happily floating in the water with life buoys and secured nicely with two heaving lines , but try as that might, they couldn't pick up this fellow weighing about 200 Kgs. Finally they launched the lifeboat, which they couldn't pick up due to the waves picking up. So now they had eight men who needed rescuing. I knew most of the men involved and we had a good laugh over it later. But I'm sure it must have been a sticky issue for the Captain to put in his report at that time.

Please have a look at the excellent resources below

Resources :

India Coast Guard Website
Coast Guard on Wikipedia
Coast Guard on Bharat Rakshak

The Giripeth Post office - Nagpur

As I have put up in the title bar, I have a weakness of taking my pictures with post offices or post boxes. I got an opportunity to do it yesterday and I wasn't going to pass up on it. The Giripeth post office in Nagpur has a very rustic look to it, like it might have existed in this state for more then 50 years. And it really might have had. My wife is form the locality and she claims to have seen the post office in the same state since memory serves her. That would put the age of the post office anywhere from five years to twentyfive - depending on who is telling my wifes age!

The Post box outside actually looks like it had fallen in one of the stronger monsoon winds and is now firmly propped up in place with a cement base. But nothing much seems to be holding up the building, with its beautiful tiled roof and wooden latticed front. It is really hot in Nagpur, with temperatures reaching up to 47 Deg C yesterday. But because of the construction of these older houses, it was rather pleasant inside the structure.

The well and the Post office in the background

Another neat part about the post office is that it has an serviceable well of its own! Most houses built in this region had a well if their own dug because there was no piped water, but today, you either have bore well dug or even if you dig it at a side or behind your house. This post office was evidently built during a time and place, where the well was a focal point of the house and was considered important enough to accord a place right in front.

Sadly there were no records or information available in the post office about when it was established. The post master, a helpful man in his forties did chat with me for a bit. This post office doee not really handle the home delivery of the letters for the locality. That is taken care of by the post office at Shankar nagar - A heartless three storied buliding, and the area North of the road is taken care of by the GPO.

The General Post office is an nice building from the British era and you can find it towards the north east of map down below, also I had posted about it a long time back here.

If you have been following my regular blog, you'll know that I am working on Geotagging these days and the map below is from another result of a new application called "Here I am".

I was also able to glean the information that the land is not governments and is leased from the "society" and now it seems that they want it back. Since its the government, we can at least be assured that they will take another five to ten years to vacate the building, but it will be a real tragedy to lose such a quaint post office in the middle of the city.



View Larger Map

The map with the Post office location (GPO on top right)

The india post

Just because I haven't been very active over the last few months, doesn't mean that the lethargy has spread to India Post. The chaps out there have been keeping themselves well occupied. I wanted to check up something on their website and found that due to an oversight, I had not put up the India websitte in my links of world postal websites. I rectified that error and just to make it more easire, you can find the link to India post main webpage here.

I forgot to put this here before but on 23rd sep last year, India post changed their corporate logo to the one given up here. The original one was the one given on the right.

Honestly I'm not sure why, but I liked the older one better. I think its just a matter of getting used to it.

Dinesh wrote a nice article on it here, if you are interested.

Also other changes to have come up are that india post has stopped sea mail parcle service from 1st jan. Its a sad thing as I am associated with the sea myself, but I guess in todays world, it was something inevitable.

Also for delivery outside india, India post has entered a jloint venture with the Duetsche post to form something called WorldNet Express . We'll just have to wait for user feedback and about how much more expensive this service might be.

Abe Lincoln - Wish list and Part 2

As i got online in the night, I did dig up information on the Lincoln stamps that Jean and Claude had sent me in the last post. On the USPS site, I was able to dig up the stamps in concern and these are most delicious. The stamps have been released in a set of four , each pertraying the multifacted nature of this great man, ie, as a Rail splitter, a lawyer, a politician and finally a president. The stamps that Jean and claude sent me were of Lincoln as a president and a lawyer.

It really was a pity to see the collection being sold for 17 USD, and if that wasn't enough, I also found that the USPS had released another beautiful framed collection on Lincoln which sells for USD 50.

As we can see, it not only has the first day cover of the bicentinial, but also has other items such as the Lincoln penny, and what seems to be an anti-slavery stamp. An amazin g thing to get your hands on as all my kind readers will agree.

One slight ammendment to the last post. It is 200 years to the year when lincoln was born. :)

Ab Lincoln

 

I came back from a vacation to find only one post waiting for me. It
was a little sad, but I haven't been able to give much time to
philately these days and of just isn't fair to you people to keep
sending me stamps without anything back from me.
Todays letter was from jean and Claude Linossi from NC, Usa. And they
were very kind. They had actually taken the pain to go through the
blog and sent me stamps which I like, such as on military, cartoons
and even postage. Very considerate and appreciated.
But the best stamps that i liked was the pair on president Lincoln
that they put up on the cover. I doubt that they knew this, but I am a
fan and it came as a pleasent surprise to see that the USPS has come
out with a stamp on him .
.

It really shouldn't have been a surprise as it is his birth centinary
this year. When I was last in the US around feb, I bought a copy of a
special issue on lincoln that the Times had brought out on the man.
So thanks for the stamps jean and Claude. Will try to send across
something soon.
.





PS:  Regret the atrocious picture of the President, nut am posting this from the iphone and the picture quality of its camera does leave a bit to be desired when taking macro pictures. One of the pictures is of the bearded man whereas the other one was the clean shaven Lincoln. Apparently a school girl had written to Lincoln to keep a beard. :)

Sent from my iPhone

Peekaboo

I do apologize to anyone who has noticed the lack of posting on my
blog. But I am home these days , and as
You all might have guessed from the above picture, our priorities have
been undergoing some dramatic changes.

Cheers all!!

Venezuela - The Metro System

Location : Freeport, Texas

I did mention previously that the last trip to Venezuela was a total waste. Well maybe not because I did get one set of stamps there on the Metro rail system. Sadly I'm not really collecting stapms on train, but it does make for interesting collection.

The stamps on top are dealing with the Metro system, a mass rapid transport system in the Capital Caracas and its neighbourhoods. Apparently the Metro system, which was started in 1983, is a source of great pride in the Venezuela, so the next time you are there, you should make a mental note not to pee when you are waiting for your next train.

An excellent source of information on the Caracas Metro system can be found here at Wikipedia. The stamps in question are dealing with the new developements being made on the Caracas metro system. The top stamp is on the new 4th Line that was opened in 2006. The other stamp deals with the " Metro Los Teques", a line started between the main line with the town of Los Teques.

The two stamps below are the stamps on the metro system of the city of Valencia. Now this is a much newer system that came into service only in 2006. As per wiki, they charge only 500 bolivar for an adult, which comes to about 23 US cents. Which makes it irritating to me because the cost of the stamp on the metro costs 3000 bolivars, a cost that would have gotten me 6 round trips on the metro.

Sources : Urban Rail - Valencia , Urban Rail - Caracas ,  Offical website - Caracas Metro , Offical website - Valencia Metro

Italy - Como the silk stamp

Location : The Gulf Of Mexico

Sometimes it is frustrating not to have access to the internet because I want to research a bit into the subject that I want to blog on. This is one of the reasons that I have been holding out on this miniature sheet that I am presenting today.

This is apparently the first (and as far as I can tell - the only) stamp sheet to have come out in pure silk. This sheet, priced at approx 2.8 Euro was released by the Italian post to comemorate the Italian artist and sculptor Baldassare Longoni (1876 - 1956). The picture on the left of the sheet is one of his paintings of the city Como, which is famous for the silk it produces. Please note the side edges that I have left out where you can see the fine silk threads coming out.

That said, the above information is something I have deduced using my non-existent knowledge of Italian, mixed with the help of a few translation sites. So there is much that still needs to be resolved. For example why silk? Does it pay homage to the city or to Longoni, who did something in silk as well.

Also It seems to be particularly tough to get hold of an boigraphy of Mr Longoni to know more about that chap. Web searches only lead to auction houses who ask me if I am a neice of Mr Longoni.

Finally the translation of the back printing leads me to believe that this is actually some sort of an envelope and it is supposed to open up. Very exciting and Indiana Jones like! I think I will leave it a mystrey till someone from you kind readers can translate it and shed some more light on it.

USA - Vintage Black Cinema

Location : Gulf Of Mexico, 26 31 N , 094 17 W

Firstly I am a bit surprised that in this age of extreme political correctness in the US, the USPS came out with a stamp sheet called "Black Cinema". Maybe they thought that "Colored Cinema" might be misleading. :)

Regardless, I was thrilled to get my hands on this sheet. I am an minor Jazz fan and so I was very happy to get my hands on the stamps featuring Duke Ellington and Louis Jordan.

Let me tell you a bit about the stamps.

Remembered as the first screen appearance of Duke Ellington, the 1929 Black and Tan features three songs by Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra. In this 19 minute short movie, Ellington, playing himself, is in danger of having his piano repossessed. When his fatally ill girlfriend dances at a night club, she saves Ellington's music - and asks to hear his "black and Tan fantasy" on her deathbed. So by all accounts, it wasn't a fresh and happy short movie.

I haven't seen the movie myself, and I as an policy don't post you tube videos on my blog. But if you are so inclined, you can get the first five minutes of the movie on youtube at this link.

The other stamp I was keen about was of Louis Jordan. This chap was one of the most colorful person in the Jazz industry and was an accomplished singer, Saxophonist, and a bandleader. He had a band called the tympani five and sang his way into peoples hearts right through the 1930s to the 1950's. An amazing personality, the Caldonia was called a short film simply because in that time, no body had coined the term "music video". This was an 18 minute film featuring four of Jordan's songs.

Links : Official website of Louis Jordan.

Egyptian Immigration

Location : The Cayman Ridge ,  19 38 N 083 36 W

 

Since we have been going through my official papers, let me show you a page from one of the passports. This is the Egyptian immigration at work and for some reason they seem to be using revenue stamps in the temporary visas. I'm not sure if they are still doing that, but I haven't seen too many countries using stamps.

 

Sadly the impressive Eagle cancellation hasn't been done properly and the stamps themselves are upside down to each other. The whole effect onestly doesn't seem too appealing. But then Immigration officials are rarely known for their artistic sensibilities.  

 

Venezuela No 2

Location : Off Jamaica , 17 24 N 080 31 W

In line with the yesterdays fiscal stamp, I wanted to put another one I spotted on the official papers. This one seems to have a value written on it of 0.02 UT, a value I'm not sure what it represents in Big Mac's.

If someone could shed some light on then, it would be greatly appreciated.

Venezuela

Location : Caribbean , 14 45 N , 074 33 W

 

The last few days were busy as I went to Venezuela, but it was sure disappointing. I couldn't get ashore and couldn't get any cards till the very last minute. So sorry folks, but there's not going to be any mail call from Venezuela this time. But I did get a few stamps on the offical mail during this call.

 

Pictured above is an Venezuelan stamp to be used on the offical stamp parers. I think the notation "Timbre Fisical" on the bottom left means "Financial Stamp". Itas a neat thing, but sadly as its part of the offical papers, can't add it to the personal collection. :)

 

 

 

Empire state building - Postal Chute

Location : Atlantic - 24 24 N , 069 28 W

 

It seems ages since I put up a picture of a post box or a post office out here. So I wanted to show you something different today. I had gone to the Empire state building in New york a few days back and they let us up to the observatory on the 86th floor. On the way I came across this chute which is pictured here. The inscription on the metal plate reads " US Mail - Cutler mailing system, Cutler mail chute Co., Rochester, NY USA".

 

I saw it on only one floor, but its a safe assumption that this chute goes all along the height of the the Empire state building. I haven't seen such an system in use anywhere else and I doubt in the new skyrises being made today, postal chutes are fitted anymore. Postal chutes must have been a great godsend in those days for all postal employees.

 

 I heard that once the Empire state building postal chutes shut down and an postal employee had to climb the outside of the building to deliver mail to the top floor. An unfortunate mix up in the new USPS uniform led people to believe that an ape was climbing the Empire State Building. I believe that even made a movie on that!

 

 

U.S - Frank Sinatra

Position : The Atlantic - 38 19 N / 072 07W

 

The last few days were hectic as hell. We were discharging at three ports inside New york , and what with all the inspections and going out and doing stuff, I was plum out of time to post something here. But in all that I did manage to get my foot into the door of the probably the smallest post office in USA. I got a total of three stamps and one sheet out of the trip, which only means that I am going to have to shift to bigger post offices. 

 

The stamp above is of the USPS, an organisation that I'm afraid  will feature more often  here as my ship spendfs a lot more time in this part of the world. So as I was saying, this stamp features Frank Sinatra. Though I never did like the guys music, he was an and remains fabulously liked by a lot of people. Several of his recordings - including 'In the wee small hours' and 'Come fly with me' - are considered classics.

 

I think the only song I liked of his was "Strangers in the night". But honestly if I want to listen to music of that time, I would rather listen to Kid ory or Louis Jordan's Jazz. I'll probably post something on that tomorrow.