This man preserves rare Gandhi material
VADODARA: From rare newspapers, photographs, envelopes, stamps and even notes scribbled by Mahatma Gandhi,
this city-based collector has it all. For Anirudh Sethi, the items are
not merely a part of his passion, but something that he is collecting
for future generations.
Sethi has photographs like the crowd at Birla Mandir immediately after Gandhi's assassination and his ashes being collected after cremation. There are stills of Gandhi being surrounded by a large crowd when he went to meet Charlie Chaplin at a friend's flat during a visit to Britain.
"This is a collection that I developed over a period of around 15 to 18 years. Newspapers are something that is difficult to find even a day later. The interesting aspect is that Gandhi got noticed across the globe and newspapers in Britain and the US, too, wrote extensively on him. An American newspaper had headlines related to Gandhi for 10 consecutive days. This tells us about how much the personality was respected," Sethi said.
Sethi has a collection of newspapers on the day the news of Bapu's assassination was reported. "My collection is largely of English newspapers as this is the only language from outside the country that we can understand," Sethi said.
Sethi has collected the material through various sources and in the process has made friends who tip him off in case they come across any material of his interest. "They know that I am keen on things on Gandhi and whenever they have something, I am the first one to be offered that item," he said.
Sethi has photographs like the crowd at Birla Mandir immediately after Gandhi's assassination and his ashes being collected after cremation. There are stills of Gandhi being surrounded by a large crowd when he went to meet Charlie Chaplin at a friend's flat during a visit to Britain.
"This is a collection that I developed over a period of around 15 to 18 years. Newspapers are something that is difficult to find even a day later. The interesting aspect is that Gandhi got noticed across the globe and newspapers in Britain and the US, too, wrote extensively on him. An American newspaper had headlines related to Gandhi for 10 consecutive days. This tells us about how much the personality was respected," Sethi said.
Sethi has a collection of newspapers on the day the news of Bapu's assassination was reported. "My collection is largely of English newspapers as this is the only language from outside the country that we can understand," Sethi said.
Sethi has collected the material through various sources and in the process has made friends who tip him off in case they come across any material of his interest. "They know that I am keen on things on Gandhi and whenever they have something, I am the first one to be offered that item," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment