Bhatt said that other collectors across the country and abroad also helped him in adding to his collection. The collectors gave him match boxes in return for the duplicates in Bhatt’s collection. Sometimes, collectors from abroad also contacted him for exchange, writes Farooq Qureshi
People might not expect a well dressed man picking up empty match boxes from roads, parks and other public places. But this man whom we are talking about is a passionate match box collector. He is SK Bhatt and has over 11,500 match boxes from about 90 countries.
There are several records to his credit and has held numerous exhibitions in the city and across the country.
The collection bug bit Bhatt around 31 years ago when he was studying in class VII and now this is a passion with him that has won him accolades and praises.
These match boxes can be variously categorized. Their prices range from 1 aana to Rs 350. Some are more than 150 years old. They belong to 90 different countries, some dating back to World War II. In all, there are over 11000 of them and each is unique in the sense that they have different stories relating to production, use and popularity among consumers.
The collection is a combined effort, supported by his family, neighbors, colleagues and other collectors. His passion has the support of not only the people of the country but representatives of the companies working with his BHEl where he works.
He works as a technician with BHEl and it is in his company where he meets with people from different countries that has helped him amass a rich collection of match boxes from Sweden and Germany. When the representatives of Sweden and Germany came to know about his passion they took pains to bring with them different types of match boxes from their countries.
Bhatt said that other collectors across the country and abroad also helped him in adding to his collection. The collectors gave him match boxes in return for the duplicates in Bhatt’s collection. Sometime, collectors from abroad also contacted him for exchange.
He had put up a box for collecting match boxes in which neighbours and other people drop empty match boxes, especially those that are uncommon.
It was in the course of this interview that Bhatt received a parcel from a Delhi-based collector. The parcel included a set of match boxes from Spain.
Earlier he collected match boxes randomly but gradually he evolved a method in it and he learnt to categorise his collection. He said now his collection assumed the shape of a theme, including Mother’s Day, World Environment Day, World Population Day , Forest Conservation, etc.
In his collection, there are 30 match boxes relating to Amitabh Bachchan movies, although he regrets that no match box relating to his latest film, Satyagraha, has been produced.
Bhatt has also created beautiful pictures, models and other things from match sticks. Recently, he had made a picture of the Bollywood legend Amitabh Bacchan with the help of match sticks.
Bhatt has received numerous awards. To name a few, he has been named in the India Book of Records, Unique World Records, Assist World Record and many more.
The three-day exhibition on World Heritage Day at the Regional Science Center is a yearly ritual for Bhatt and he enjoys displaying his collection at the RSC as many visitors, who are city residents, are aware about the match box factories which were closed years ago. But, when the visitors find that the collection includes match boxes of of an era gone by, they feel connected. At the RSC exhibition two years ago, an 80-year-old man of old Bhopal, after finding a match box produced at a factory at Hathikhana (old city ) praised Bhatt and expressed joy that the two ‘Shaturmurg’ and ‘Noorjehan’ match boxes were produced when he was young and these match boxes were famous at that time in the city.
The visitor said that although the factory closed many years ago, the match boxes refreshed his memories of that period.
Bhatt has several such experiences of visitors narrating stories relating to the match boxes in his collection. These interesting stories encourage him to add unique match boxes to his collection.
He said there were many match boxes which never reached the market as the collectors used to order them and buy them. Some of the match boxes are made for the collectors.
Bhatt is regular visitor to Jabalpur, Nagpur, Udaipur and Bhatinda for displaying his unique collection.
Bhatt has match boxes which were used during the World War II which had a mark, ‘War Quality’. He has match boxes produced by the East India Company and there is also a match box which is 176 years old, produced in 1840. Bhatt has made tiny match boxes, 1mm x 2 mm in dimension.
Bhatt also has a huge coin collection which has coins of 40 different countries. He also has a unique
collection of playing card jokers. The collection has 150 different types of jokers collected over the past few years. The stamps and currency notes of several countries can also be found in his collection.
Although he has held several exhibitions at different places, his desire for more exhibitions remains there. He said if any institute, school or college was willing to exhibit his collection, he was ever willing to oblige.