Inked in 19’s

I have always loved preserving old letters,postcards and emails
(that’s how most people write nowadays :P)
My family/friends call them Junk but they are the most valuable things to me.They are part of my memories and make me feel nostalgic each time I go through them.

Mostly, I don’t share such belongings with anyone.
But,some months back while working on a project – in collaboration, I got my hands on some lovely Old Postcards from East Indian Company time.
I loved them in just a glance.
I bought two of them from a local seller in Old Dilli (Delhi).
I was supposed to use them in our project but unfortunately/fortunately I lost the project and also the postcards 🙁

I was disappointed; so very disappointed and angry.

But then after some months, I again started looking for that seller, if I could cover-up for the loss of that lost treasure.

It was a hot sunny day when I decided to try my luck again in the same market. I was now fortunate enough to have my good friend ‘Ankit ‘ along my side.
It was not so easy to find the postcards this time. We walked right to left, left to right but that seller was just not there. Finally, I started asking people about this person who sells the old postcards.
After some good time,I finally got my eyes on this Old Gentleman ‘Miaan jee’ sitting on floor with hundreds of the old Indian postcards. I was just so overwhelmed 😀
I bought a good collection from ‘Miaan jee’.

 Old Indian Postcards

  Miaan Jee reading out a postcard for me

So, here I am finally sharing those postcards with you all in a new manner. I could have shared these postcards just like the way they are, but I wanted to give even more with these invaluable tokens of memories.

My way of presenting them is in the form which I am best at.
Yes, in the form of  ‘Handbound Notebooks’ . 

 The Notebooks ‘WIP’

Ques : Why am I releasing the series on Oct 1 ??
Ans : Postage stamps were first used in India in 1852 at district of Scinde (also known as Scinde dawk).
On 1st October 1854, the first all India stamp was issued.

These Seven Notebooks carry the dates & places of their origin complemented within a handmade Envelope; to be addressed to someone you would love to gift 🙂

14th Sep’ 2013
The Dak(Post) of all the Seven Notebooks finally reached the Post Box in Connaught Place,New Delhi.

The Postman

The Old Postman was astonished to see such Old Postcards (1926-1952) in between the wrapped & unwrapped Notebooks.

Notebooks on Letterbox

Postcard from the LetterBox

Notebooks in the hands of Postman

showing off

@antimakhanna- Label

His bicycle carrier was loaded with the Dak(Post) and he started riding towards my house.

On the Carrier

Towards my Home

Hurray! Finally the diaries are in my hands. The feel of brown cotton fabric and the fossil ink on postcards will let you time travel in Indian early 19’s.

In my Hands 🙂

Delhi – 3 Jan 1952

The Thickness

Full Appearance

Features :

• 11 X 15 cms
• Brown Cotton Fabric Cover
• 150 pages of Brown & Creamish Yellow
• 150 GSM
• Easy to Open and Write
• Strong Thread Hand-Binding

Each Notebook set comes with

1. A Notebook
2. A postcard in handmade Envelope

The notebooks are wrapped in the Rough Brown Paper Envelope.

wrapped and stamped

You can have a look at the Seven Notebooks individually along with the scans of the Postcard.

Delhi – 3 Jan 52

Katra to Porbandar – 5 Dec 49

Dargabazar to Shahpura – 19 Sep 34

Ajmer to Jodhpur -2 Mar 41

Chandni Chowk – Shahpura -3 Jun26

Calcutta to Jaipur – 15 Oct 41

Nandurbar to Beawar – 6 Dec 30

Last but not the least, I am very thankful to Ankit for shooting the pictures with the Postman 🙂

For Orders & Feedback:
antimakhanna@gmail.com