50th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood

Date of Issue - 3 January 2009

Hi ! Greetings to all of you on Makar Sankranti which is celebrated in many parts of India with different names like Lorhi, Pongal etc. Now in Today's Post Here is a recent beautiful stamp issued by US Postal Service depicting an amazing view of Alaska.I received more information from Mr.Fred Baumann, Public Relations Manager, American Philatelic Society about other stamps issued on this State which I want to share with all of you. The links have been given below with the news. In second part some news from our members. I received a news from Kanpur, my home town about a nice Get - Together of Philatelists organized by Mr. Arjun Ghosh a noted philatelist of Kanpur. It was attended by distinguished philatelists of Kanpur and Mr. Madhukar Jhingan of New Delhi.It's a pleasure to write about it as I had visited several times Mr. Ghosh's famous stamp shop of Navin Market Kanpur "Stamp & Book Corner" for my collection and catalogues since my early days of collection. I wish if I could attend this Get-Togther of Philatelists. A new special cover released in Dehradun and in the last part FDCs from the collection of our distinguished member Mr. Shrikant Parikh in the regular series of se-tenant FDCs. This is all for today ! .... Our sincere thanks to Mr. Fred Bauman, Mr. Abhai Mishra & Mr. Shrikant Parikh for today's Post Till next Post ...Have a Great Time !

Greetings on Makar Sankranti

Makar Sankranti
Makar Sankranti is a harvest festival and a very auspicious event in India. The earth moves out of Dakshinayan and Paush month and enter Uttarayan and the Paush month. Makar-Capricorn,Sankranti- transition. The sun transits from Saggitarius to Capricorn zodiac on 14th January every year. It is believed that the sun meets his son Saturn for the month. Makar Sankranti is celebrated as Lohri and Maghi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and Bhogali Bihu in Assam. In Allahabad (Prayag), devotees take a dip in the holy rivers; enjoy the Khichri event and Magh -mela. A lot of pilgrims from all over India attend the Ganga Sagar fair in Bengal. Kite flying along with the Sankrant festivity that is pre dominant in Gujarat, has gained eminence internationally. Sweets, especially the (sesame) til -gud laddus are prepared in every house. People exchange sweets, pray for prosperity and forget past grudges. Pooja accessories, sweets, greetings are some of the gift products marked with corporate logo and used for gifting employees and promotions


50th Anniversary of Alaska Statehood

U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp on the 50th Anniversary Alaska Statehood .In celebration of Alaska’s past, with the treaty ratification with Russia on April 9, 1867, the purchase and transfer to the United States on Oct. 18, 1867, to it becoming an official U.S. territory in 1912, and the 49th state on Jan. 3, 1959, Alaska remains “the last frontier.” The name of the state derives from an Aleut word meaning “great land.”

The stamp features Jeff Schultz’s photograph of a dog musher taken during the 2000 Iditarod. Fifteen degrees above zero, Schultz was 75 miles from the nearest town following the trail along the Rainey Pass just as the dog sled team raced across the foreground. Unlike any other race in the world, Iditarod competitors traverse more than 1,150 miles of the most extreme and beautiful terrain known to man to include mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline.

The American Philatelic Society, recently prepared a free album of Stamps of Alaska in pdf form to showcase many U.S. stamps related to the Alaska State. which can be downloaded from : http://www.stamps.org/Albums/alaska.pdf and some more links related with US stamps are : http://www.stamps.org/Education/edu_AlbumPages.htm & http://www.stamps.org/


Club News

Philatelic Get - Together at Kanpur

Arjun Ghosh well known veteran stamp dealer organized get-together for philatelists at Kanpur on January 4, 2009. Arun Agarwal, R C Agarwal, Rajprit Singh Saluja, Shafiq Khan, and Madhukar Jhingan were some of the philatelists who attended this get-together. The get-together will regularly be held on first Sunday of every month. This was decided by Mr. Ghosh at the meeting.

DRDO Golden Jubilee , Symposium D.E.A.I. Dehradun

Special Cover

DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organisation) completed its 50 year of existense in 2008. Golden Jubilee Symposium on "Defence Technologies for Imaging and Communication" was held at DEAL (Defense Electronics Applications Laboratory), Dehradun on 23rd December. The symposium was attended by top Defence Scientists of the country. Chief Guest was Dr. W. Selwamurthy. Distinguished Scientist, CCR&D(LS&HR). Sh Vivek Kaul CPMG Uttarakhsnd Circle released a special cover to mark this event.

A Journey to Indian Stamps - FDCs of se-tenant stamps

From collection of Shrikant Parikh

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore -14 Dec. 2008

Se-tenant from Normal sheet

Se-tenant From Miniature sheet