World's Highest Post Office - India

World's Highest Post Office

The World's Highest post office is situated at Hikkim in the Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The world's highest post office began its operations in 1983 and is located at 14,567 feet above sea level. It is built in the shape of a letterbox to attract tourists. Since its inception, Mr. Richen Chhering is the postmaster of this Hikkim post office.

Golconda Fort - PPC

Golconda Fort - PPC

Golconda Fort, situated in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The Golconda was built in 1143 by Kakatiyas Dynasty.  The word Golconda is derived from the Telugu words “Golla” and “Konda” – together gives the meaning of ‘Shepherd’s Hill’.

Initially, Golconda Fort was a mud fort and later on was built into a grand structure on a granite hilltop pavilion.  The entire Golconda Fort complex is spread across 11 km.

On 27th September 2021, India Post came up with a permanent pictorial cancellation of this fort.

August 10th : World Lion Day

August 10th: World Lion Day

World Lion Day is celebrated every year on August 10th since 2013.  The King of the jungle, being the largest species on earth, really struggling for its survival.  These majestic cats that symbolise courage, ferocity, and power are threatened by extensive habitat loss. There has been a decline in 80% of the population of lions in the past 100 years. 

The King of the jungle actually lives in grasslands and plains.  They were once found throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.  But their numbers dwindled over the years.  Currently, they just exist in over 25 African countries and 1 Asian country.  The last remaining population of the Asiatic Lions can be found in Gujarat's Gir National Park.  The top member of Asia's Big 5, now only seen in India.

In 2013, National Geographic, Dereck, and Beverly Joubert founded the Big Cat Initiative in 2009 and created World Lion Day in 2013. The majestic species standing as a symbol of many countries and kingdoms, now in the mercy of humans.  Let's protect these wild cats in their natural habitat.

The below stamp was issued by India Post in the year 2015

Aryabhata satellite : A precursor to Mangalyaan

Aryabhata was the first Indian Space Satellite, designed by ISRO and launched from USSR through Cosmos 3 vehicle.  This satellite was named after the famous Indian Mathematician and Astronomer of the 5th Century, Aryabhata. Even though it was not very successful it paved the way for today's success of Mangalyaan. Like many other satellites, the Aryabhata satellite has a compact design. 

The below stamp was issued on 19th April 1975 by India post to commemorate the successful launching of the satellite.

16th April - National Orchid Day

Orchids are a widespread family of flowering plants that are very colourful and fragrant. Each year on April 16th, National Orchid Day recognizes this beautiful family of flowering plants. The creators  of this day,  Mike and Faith Young, were volunteers at an orchid reserve in Mexico. They chose this day as Orchid day to remember their late infant daughter, Orchid Faith, who they lost on the same day in 2014, with their favourite flower - the Orchids.

Though it is started in 2015 at Mexico, the orchid lovers from all around the world started adopting April 16th as Orchid day.

Below, is a beautiful and colourful miniature sheet on Orchids issued by India on 8th August 2016. India is home to 1256 species of Orchids.

UNESCO WHS Miniature sheet

India Post issued a  set of six stamps and a miniature sheet on Hill forts of Rajasthan on 29th December 2018. 

This is the second Odd shaped Miniature sheet issued by India post.  It is in the shape of the UNESCO logo.

This is the first set in UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India series.  

Denominations: Three 12 Rs and three 5 Rs.

The stamps depict forts of Amer, Kumbhalgarh, Chittorgarh, Jaisalmer, Gagron and Ranthambhor.

First Flight Cover - Coimbatore New Delhi, Air India

Air India, India's National carrier recently introduced a non stop flight from Coimbatore, the "Manchester of South India" to National capital New Delhi on 1st December of 2018.  To commemorate this, Coimbatore postal circle issued a First flight Cover.

Marudamalai Murugal temple - Coimbatore and India Gate - Delhi, two prominent attractions of the two cities are  depicted on the cover. 

My very first FFC issued by India Post.  Nice addition to my "Evolution of flight" theme.

India's First Odd Shaped Miniature Sheet

Odisha is hosting the 2018 Men's Hockey World cup. To commemorate this, India post has issued an Olive Ridley turtle shaped Miniature sheet. Olly, the Olive Ridley sea turtle is the mascot of this tournament.  Gahirmatha beach in Odisha is the World's most important nesting beach for the Olive Ridley Sea turtles. One of the 5 stamps issued, shows Olly playing hockey and the tournament cup. The shadow image of Puri Jagannath temple is portrayed on the Miniature sheet. 

There are 16 teams participating in this tournament and India is the second country to host the Hockey World cup thrice. The only other country is Netherlands.  Earlier India hosted the World Cup in 1982 in Mumbai and in 2010 in Delhi. 

27th September : World Tourism Day

Tourism is one of the major determinant of a country's economy and development. Over the past few decades, tourism has been expanding rapidly due to a variety of factors, like advancement in Technology, boom in economy etc. Tourism has many sub categories under it for example, eco-tourism, educational tourism, sustainable tourism, religious tourism, medical tourism etc.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) on 15th September 2017 at their 22nd UNWTO conference took a major step to improving sustainable tourism by declaring 27th September as World Tourism day and 2017 as International Year of Sustainable tourism for development.

Sustainable development means development of the present without compromising the needs of the future generations. 

Tourism in India , 2016

Tourism destinations of Indonesia, 2017 

Permanent Pictorial Cancellation: Mylapore

Mylapore, is the Oldest residential city and cultural hub of Chennai. "Myl" means peacock in Tamil and "Mylapore" means Land of Peacock.  This town is more than 1000 year old and is famous for Kapaleeshwarar temple (see link for story behind the name) and the Kesava Perumal temple.  

India Post has introduced the Permanent Pictorial Cancellation depicting Peacock and Punnai tree leaves on 14th November 1979.  Hindus believe that those who are wishing for kids worship this Punnai tree, they will be blessed with kids. When you visit, you will see lot of small cradles tied on the punnai tree.

(photo taken from the net)

I plan to visit the town post-office to get the pictorial cancellation on the below Peacock card with peacock stamp on it.   

International Yoga Day

During the United Nations General Assembly meeting in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took initiative to adopt International Yoga Day to tackle the diseases caused by the climatic changes.  On December 11, 2014 it was accepted by world leaders and then on wards "June 21st" is celebrated as International Yoga Day. 

Below stamps depicts "Surya Namaskar" (Sun salutation).

Surya Namaskar consists of 2 cycles of 12 postures, It starts and ends with salutation.  First cycle is done with the right leg and the second cycle is done with the left leg. Six postures are issued in Rs.5 denomination and 6 Postures are issued in Rs.25 denominations.

 


 

 

 

Permanent Pictorial cancellation : Mudumalai

I recently visited the Mudumalai Tiger reserve, a beautiful place to roam around especially for nature lovers like me.  But unfortunately, we could spot nothing more than a few spotted deers, bisons, mongoose and a handful of langurs, peacocks and peahens.  Though being the home of a variety of animals especially tigers ( Mudumalai Tiger Reserve) because of we humans they have been much disturbed. For example, the honking of cars, pollution and people's attitude towards these poor creatures have made these creatures insecure depriving them the comfort of their habitat. I have always wanted to become an environmental engineer to make a little difference in these matters. I also encourage each one of you to help towards preserving nature.

Now coming to the philatelic aspect of the topic, Mudumalai is a reserve located in the Nilgiris in between the boundaries of Kerala and Karnataka. It is at an elevation of about 1000 m and extends over an area of 323 sq. kms. Mudumalai B.O. had introduced a permanent pictorial cancellation of the Indian bison or Gaur on 05.04.1975.  Gaurs, spotted deers, elephants are few among the most common species found here.

Mahamaham, Kumbakonam - Special Cover

Kumbakonam  is situated between two rivers Kavery and Arasalar in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, is famous for its ancient temples and for the Mahamaham Festival.  It was once a capital city of Chozha Empire.

Hindus believe that taking dip at Holy rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Mahanathi etc would wash their sins. This was based on one of the mythological incident where once the holy rivers of India went to Brahma, the God of Creation and asked him, "How they can wash their sins while others (the earthly) leave their sins by taking dip in them?". Brahma told the holy rivers to meet near the Kumbakonam tank on the full moon day of Masi month (Tamil Month) to get rid of their (holy river's) sins. This event is referred to as "Mahamaham" and happens once in 11 or 12 years. 

Masi month starts by mid February and retreats by mid March.  Since Hindus believe that all holy rivers meet in Kumbakonam and the idols of all the main deities of Kumbakonam are given a dip at the tank. 

Thus all Hindus like to visit this auspicious  place during the Mahamaham Kumba mela to take a dip. Last time it happened was  in 2004. This year(2016) it happened between February 13 to 22nd. 

To commemorate this occasion India Post released a special cover. I am lucky enough  to get the below cover for my collection.  The cancellation depicts the star Leo and the orbit of the constellation.  Hindus worship all rivers as Goddesses,  so the Women Empowerment stamps fits nicely for expressing the occasion on cover.

Joint issue stamps: India - Singapore

On November 24th 2015, Singapore Prime Minister Mr. Lee Hsien Loong along with Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi jointly issued 2 stamps ( issued by both Sing Post and India Post - a joint issue) one featuring Istana (The Singapore President's house) and the other featuring the Rashtrapati Bhavan (The Indian President's house) on Mr. Modi's official visit in Singapore marking the 50th anniversary establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and India.

Recently I received a beautiful cover from Singapore from my friend  Lee Shiou Ming. She has used the stamps beautifully on cover in such a way that on the left hand corner is the India's version of Rashtrapati Bhavan and Istana and in the right hand corner Singapore's version but the order is the other way around- Istana first and then Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Thanks a Ton, Shiou Ming for such a wonderful cover.

Balloon Carried Cover : India

On 3rd of January, 2016,  India Post has released a special cover to commemorate the 2nd Tamil Nadu International Balloon Festival held at Pollachi, Tamil Nadu.  Limited edition of 1000 covers were printed and each cover is numbered.  The cover was carried in the balloon and it has the despatch cancellation at the front and delivery cancellation mark at the back of the cover.  Nice addition to my Flights of Fancy.

Cambodia - Post Card

The Sri Rangam Sri Ranganathasamy Temple (Tamil Nadu, India) is the largest functioning temple in the world (It covers an area of 631,000 square meters)  whereas Angkor Wat, Cambodia is the largest  existing temple in  the world (Since Angkor Wat is not functioning - i.e. there are no daily rituals performed there). 

Recently Bian of China visited Combodia and she gladly agreed to send me a card from there.  I got the long view of the Angkor Wat card today.  Thanks Bian for the nice Card.

The scripts in the cambodian cancellation looks somewhat similar to our regional language Telugu and Kannada. This probably reflects some common history, since the temple was for the Hindu God Vishnu and the Khmer empire originated from King Jayavarman II (a intriguingly South Indian sounding name).

I have posted about Sri Rangam, Sri Ranganathasamy Temple at

http://philateli.blogspot.in/2014/05/sri-rangam-temple.html

Odd World - India

 My Indian collection of Odd/Unique stamps

Sri Ram Janmbhoomi Stamps
Odd-shaped, scented and more
https://www.instagram.com/p/C37i_8yvMDM/

              Odd shaped Miniature sheet

(On Cover with FD post mark)

 Mint

Odd Materials

Cotton Cloth stamp

Elephant dung paper

QR code MS

Foil Embossed stamps

Scented Stamps

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Circle shaped stamps

2018, 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji

Diamond shaped stamps

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