Music Festival in Aland…

 

 

 

A great many music events are arranged in Aland during the summer months. The Aland Post focuses on two of them in 2013 – Island in the Sun and Rockoff – with the issue of two action-packed and lyrical stamps.

Island in the Sun was first arranged in August 2008 on the small archipelago island of Jurmo in the municipality of Brando. Organizing the festival is a non-profit volunteer organisation working to promote a wider and better range of music life in Aland, especially in the archipelago. Lasting for two days in July, the festival has grown each year with a 2012 record of 800 visitors and more than 100 volunteers.

The Rockoff festival has been arranged in Mariehamn every summer since 1997. For 9 days at the end of July every year, Rockoff attracts up to 40 000 visitors, tourists and locals alike. Most of the artists performing come from Sweden and Finland but, during the course of years, world-class performers and local bands alike have met the crowd from the most popular stage in Aland.

Telegrams come to an end….

Telegram  service has gone into history now. Philatelists all over India celebrated the last day of Telegram on 14th July by sending telegrams to their dear ones.  I am pleased to share here a news clipping. Mr Timir Shah of Baroda Philatelic Society tells here about his wonderful collection of Telegrams. I thank my readers and friends who have sent telegrams to me on the last day.. My special thanks to Mr Prashant Pandya from Vadodara, N. Kalyani from New Delhi, Ambrish Kumar from Allahabad, Ashwani Dubey from Gorakhpur and Arvind Mullick from Jabalpur for the last day telegrams…

Feast for philatelists…

Vadodara: Sunday was the day which philatelists from across the state used to preserve the memories of country's oldest communication service - the telegram.

"I have organized all these telegrams as per the change that happened with them. From the time, the telegraph service was mentioned as post telegraph, to the day when it was sent under the Department of Telecommunication and BSNL Limited, I will be able to showcase all these telegrams," said Timir Shah, secretary of Baroda Philatelic Society. Shah has a collection of 70-odd telegrams, including the one dating back to 1919 during the British Raj.

Vadodara bids adieu to telegram Service

Prashant Rupera, TNN Jul 15, 2013, 03.31AM IST

VADODARA: As the clock struck five, city bid adieu to world's oldest communication service by sending 250 telegrams.

Before the 163-year-old telegram service - the harbinger of good and bad news for generations of Indians - turned dead on Sunday evening, the old and the new arrived at the four telegram offices of the city to send the last of the humble telegrams which they will preserve it forever.

At the central telegram office at Kothi, there was a constant flow of parents who took their kids with them to make them learn the nitty-gritty's of writing a telegram - in the age of SMS, emails and mobile phones even as telegraphists mourned the death of the iconic service that has faded into oblivion with time. BSNL, which is discontinuing the services, got the last telegram users photographed for their archives.

The last telegram that was sent from the city will reach chief minister Narendra Modi.

"Telegram seva na antim divas no antim telegram Bharat na bhavi vada pradhan Narendra Modi ne arpan (the last telegram of the last day of telegram service is dedicated to the future prime minister of India)," read the telegram that BJP leader Jigar Inamdar sent from Kothi office.

Before him was Kiran Mandvekar, who along with his kid, used the service to send warm wishes to his Bangalore-based brother for his birthday that falls on Monday.

"In 1980s, there was a time when I had to stand in long queues at Brahman Sabha Hall (from where the telegram office operated earlier) to get a chance to send a telegram. And if you didn't have a pen to write it, it was your bad luck," recollected Mandvekar.

It was in 1938 that Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the visionary ruler of erstwhile Baroda state, had started the telephone exchange office at Kothi from where the telegram office started functioning later.

Shauree Gaekwad, 15, and her brother Shaunak, 12, who were accompanied by their father - Samir - took up the opportunity to write their first and the last telegrams, which were addressed to their grandparents in Mumbai and Rajkot. Same was the case of Dhruv and Parv Shah, who accompanied their father - Snehal - just to wish their 'dada' and 'baa' via a telegram.

From the Fatehgunj telegram office, city's well-known emergency medical services (EMS) expert Subroto Das sent telegrams to his city-based parents and wife and his Mumbai-based son.

"I still remember the time when people would approach me showing a telegram with their leave applications. Telegram from a relative was the best way to demand a leave," said Das, a former administrator of Mayo Hospital. "It is an era that has ended," he said.

"Indeed," echoed B B Chauhan, who since last 25 years, was working as a telegraphist. "We used to send thousands of telegrams each day. As its popularity started fading, the numbers fell to 25 per day. It was only in the last few days that we have witnessed rush and that too because a city school organized the event to sent mass telegrams."

"There was a time when 70 telegraphists used to work in the city. Now, few of us have been left," said Chauhan's colleague Jayshree Shah, recollecting how in its heydays telegrams were sent for court matters, government jobs, military personnel, insurance and finance firms and even as alerts for prices of grapes.

New Special Cover

100 years of Mumbai Postal Co-Operative Society Ltd.

Mumbai - 11 July 2013 

A Special Cover was issued to mark 100 years of Mumbai Postal Co-Operative Society Ltd. on 11th July 2013 at Mumbai. The society was formed in 1914

Courtesy : Indian Philately Digest