Better Philately: Hindi

Showing posts with label Hindi. Show all posts

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Paid News? An Analysis on Indian Media from 2005 to 2013

Although, no political allegiances are declared and no biases for political ideologies made known to the customers, Indian news media, both print and television are considered 'independent'. Readers most likely discover the owners' political leanings through the course of their lifetimes and have no control over the outcomes. Such is also the case with postage stamp releases by India Post in the last decade or so. Among the 20 most read newspapers in India, about half of them have had stamps released for their 'achievements' in journalism. This in itself appears to be quite a feat! Shown below are 16 postage stamps that have direct association with Indian newspapers and were released between 2005 and 2013.

Two of these newspapers, The Times of India and Malayala Manorama have also managed to get multiple stamps released for their organizations. A 'golden' stamp was released in 1988 to commemorate 150 years of The Times of India. It seemed appropriate to celebrate this milestone for a widely read newspaper, but to commemorate the same newspaper 25 years later - especially when it's publishing standards have arguably been deteriorating (some even calling it journalism that sells) - is questionable. Malayala Manorama has been the most fortunate of the lot. In the last 25 years, this newspaper has been obliged with three Indian postage stamps. The first instance appeared well deserved, when the newspaper achieved its centenary in 1988. There were two other instances when K. M. Mathew, Manorama's Editor-in-Chief was honored in 2011 and its 125 years celebration in 2013. Even if one were to consider K. M. Mathew for this honor, it would have been best to commemorate his birth centenary in 2017.

These recent stamp issues glaringly flout the stamp issuance guidelines and appear to be a result of haphazard decision-making that provides discretionary powers to the government minister and officials. Stamp collectors and the common man deserve to know more about the process and final selections with regard to the stamp issue programs. Increased transparency, reliable research for subject development and a stamp advisory committee with more powers will go a long way to prevent this from recurrence.

Postage stamps issues for magazines, newspapers and personalities associated with news media. The legend below tabulates the stamp issues and their associations with various newspapers.

#	Issue Description	Associated Newspaper, Etc.	Year
1	Puran Chandra Gupta	Dainik Jagaran	2013
2	Dr. Krishna Kumar Birla	Hindustan Times	2009
3	Jawaharlal Darda	Lokmat	2005
4	T. V. Ramasubbaiyer	Dinamalar	2008
5	Durga Prasad Chaudhary	Dainik Navjyoti	2012
6	Lala Jagat Narain	Punjab Kesari	2013
7	G. G. Jadhav	Pudhari	2009
8	Karpoor Chandra Kulish	Rajasthan Patrika	2012
9	Ramgopal Maheshwari	Central Chronicle-Nav Bharat	2012
10	The Tribune	The Tribune	2006
11	Doot	Gujarati Catholic Monthly	2011
12	Chitralekha / Vaju Kotak	Gujarati Weekly	2011
13	K. M. Mathew	Malayala Manorama	2011
14	Malayala Manorama	Malayala Manorama	2013
15	The Times of India	The Times of India	2013
16	Dineshnandini Dalmia*	The Times of India	2009

*Hindi author, but also married to Ram Krishna Dalmia, founder of the The Times Group that

owns the The Times of India

The Times of India postage stamps. Sesquicentennial celebrations in 1988 (left) and 175 years celebrations in 2013 (right)

More fortunate, Malyala Manorama. Three stamps commemorating the newspaper and its journalism. Centenary year stamp (1988; left), K. M. Mathew, Editor-in-Chief (2011; middle) and 125 years celebrations in 2013 (right).

Friday, November 20, 2015

Lame Designing - Is it really 2015, India Post?

Note for Clarification: There are ample good ideas such as crowdsourcing and stamp designs that are often used by India Post. Gandhi Return from South Africa (2015), Swachh Bharat (2015), India-France Joint issue (2015), Charkha (2015), Indian Musicians (2014), Border Security Force (2015) etc. are some recent examples of decent quality work.

But, being a stickler for good design, at least five stamp issues in the last couple years (2014 and 2015) stand out for poor execution. Stamp designs, either appropriating logos or using poor imagery reduces the overall quality of a stamp program. Logos for meetings, celebrations or any other events are typically designed to be used for publicity and to provide an identity, a connect with its audience. Rarely should postage stamps be utilizing such logos as the design backbone. Enough other related research material is generally available for design considerations. Three of these lazily executed stamp projects are shown below by comparing the stamp design and source material. Although the Yoga Day stamp depicts the official logo, the miniature sheet was well designed with elements of nature along with yoga postures.

Three Logos and their replica on postage stamps:
World Hindi Conference (2015), International Day of Yoga (2015) and Nabakalebara (2015)

One would think that famous Hindi writers like Phanishwar Nath Renu, Nirmal Verma, Rajendra Mathur, Makhanlal Chaturvedi, etc. could have been released to commemorate the World Hindi Conference. Similarly, the Yoga posture series from 1991 could have been continued with stamps on additional yoga postures being released. Nabakalebara 2015 should also have been commemorated with stamps depicting some aspects of the traditions involved in idol making.

Stamp design for a couple other issues, viz. Kuka Movement and Old Seminary Kottayam showed a clear apathy toward philately and research in general. Kuka Movement coins were released in 2012 to commemorate 150 years of the struggle. The coin design was similar to the stamp as well, but appeared to be better than the coin. Stamps generally have more space and better technology for printing rendering it a better medium of expression. The Kuka Movement stamps thus appear to lack innovation and planning during the design phase. One could easily envision including Satguru Ram Singh Ji's image as the main theme for this stamp.

Kuka Movement stamp (2014; above) and commemorative coin (2012)

The last stamp issue for discussion is the Old Seminary, Kottayam stamp released in April 2015. The seminary turned 200 years, but the stamp to commemorate the bicentenary shows a recent addition to the institution, its main entrance! Red arrows on the image below show the cut-paste job done to create the stamp design. An image from the internet exactly matches the one on the stamp with a superimposed blue sky. There are many more images on the seminary's website that could have commemorated 200 years of this institution better than the main entrance alone.

Pazhaya (Old) Seminary images from Malankara Orthodox Church TV website (above top left and right). Top right image was most likely used on the stamps.

List of Stamp Designers

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Check the Spellings #1

It is important to have the correct spellings on stamps and related philatelic material (brochure, FDC etc). In the last decade there have been numerous occasions of typographical errors on Indian postage stamps. These are mostly related to the vernacular (Hindi) spellings.

First one being a postage stamp issued on 30 June 2008 to commemorate 50 years of Madhav Institute of Science & Technology, Gwalior during the valedictory function of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations. The postage stamp has a spelling error in the Hindi alphabets. The Hindi word for 'Technology' is 'Praudyogiki'. It uses a letter, 'dya' in its spelling. The stamp on the contrary mentions it as 'Praudhogiki', making no meaning out of it. It has replaced 'dya' with 'dha'. The Ministry under which the Department of Posts functions is Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, having 'Technology' in its name itself! Such blunders are an insult to the department, which cannot even take care of spelling mistakes in postage stamps, referred to as being a nation's reprecentatives to the world. The fascimile on the borchure shows the name spelt out correctly. The error could have cropped up during the printing process.

Another mistake can be found in the Brahmos missile postage stamps released on 22 December 2008. The FDC carries the spelling of the Moskva river, in English as MOSKAVA whereas it is correctly mentioned at MOSKVA on the miniature sheet. The version in the vernacular language, on the FDC reads as MASKOVA and on the miniature sheet as MOSKOVA. So, these are four different ways to the original MOSKVA river, after which the BrahMOS cruise missile is partly named. I request the artists to be more careful, since postage stamp is a miniature art form that conveys a message and thus needs attention to perfection. A proof-check of the philatelic materials should be done before being sent out for printing. These postage stamps are the message-carriers of a nation and this postage stamp in particular, will have significance in Russia as well.

A variation in spelling Satyajit Ray's name can be found in a definitive stamp release on the legendary filmmaker, a builder of modern India in March 2009. The vernacular spelling of Ray's name is different on the other stamp released to honor him in January 1994. The stamp in the definitive series translates his last name 'Ray' name to ' रे ' where as the commemorative version has is as ' राय '. One is curious to know what goes in the making of India postage stamps and why little to no attention is paid to the details and accuracy. It may not always be wise to question the spellings for proper nouns (individual's names) but, there is ample scope to improving uniformity in this regard.

This topic is one that deserves attention. The last word on this has not been written yet. As I finish writing this, there is a new postage stamp on Indian Ocean and Rajendra Chola 1 and there are a few minor errors on that postage stamp as well. Rest for later.

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