“At the age of 15 when most children were concerned with buying chocolates or cricket gear, I decided to make use of Rs. 2. that I would get and buy newspapers and magazines. I started with “Dharmayug” and today I have a more that 70 thousand copies of different magazines and supplements since 1971.
Though it might have started as a pass-time, it soon converted into a passion. I wanted to get into journalism but in those cultural settings of 1970s taking up a profession like that was not just hard but frowned upon.I ended up taking Physics in college but I was hell bent on becoming a journalist so I ran away from home twice!
However, it has never been simple for me but after a brief period of struggle I ended up with Indian Express where I spent the rest of my working years. Throughout my life -through all my periods of happiness and struggles I never stopped investing in what I truly like! You name the newspaper, magazine, comics, movie scripts from Hindi to English to Telgu and Gujarati- I have them all.
Of my most cherished publications is one of Dharmayog’s series of 5 publications by. Dr. Dharmayog Bharti, who was one of the only people to cover the Indo-Pak war of 1971 which ended up in the liberation of East Pakistan as Bangladesh. I think the copies that I have are the only copies of this series.
I have recently bought series of Times of India’s publication which they had released on their completion of 175 years which is a collection of all major events from their archives.
Today I want to share my passion with the world and am in the process of uploading cover photos of my magazine collection onto Facebook. For this was never just a hobby for me – it was an obsession which has defined my life as it is today!
Happy World Book Day!
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