The ‘My Stamp’ initiative allows anyone to print stamps bearing their picture along side Rs 5 postage stamps that bear a number of designs, ranging from city landmarks like the Gateway of India and Siddhivinayak Temple to images of flowers. With Wedding season around the corner, the philately sections of post offices in the city have been receiving increasing demand from couples about to tie the knot. Over the summer, the trend of printing personalised stamps to go with invitation cards picked up.
Komal Padave (30), who works in the mail section of the department’s Maharashtra Circle, got the idea after her uncle gifted her and her brother personalised stamps for their birthdays a couple of years ago.The ‘My Stamp’ initiative allows anyone to print stamps bearing their picture along side Rs 5 postage stamps that bear a number of designs, ranging from city landmarks like the Gateway of India and Siddhivinayak Temple to images of flowers.
Padave and her husband, Pramod More (30), who works in the customs department, selected a picture taken during their engagement in February to sent it along with cards for their March wedding. “I thought that printing a photo of me and my husband and sending them along with invitation cards would be doing something different,” said Padave.
The idea of making their wedding stand out also made Vibha Kajare (23) and her husband Shailesh Kadam (27) from Panvel to pick out a picture from their pre-wedding photoshoot and print 36 stamps for invitation cards.
“I had seen this at a birthday party. My friend had printed stamps with his child’s picture. When we sent our stamps with invitation cards, the response was great. No one had seen anything like this,” said More.
The personalised stamps — the postal department charges Rs 300 for a sheet bearing 12 stamps — also make fine wedding presents.
C P Tank resident Jignesh Shah is among those who presents personalised stamps as presents. “Be it a birthday, a friend’s wedding anniversary, a colleague’s retirement ceremony, or a wedding, I have been gifting stamps. People like such gifts and it is also a source of income for the government,” he said.
Retired postal department employee Sanjyakumar Ghadi-goankar (57) has turned to My Stamps to send personalised gifts to his daughter who lives abroad. “When she got married four years ago, I had printed out a sheet of stamps bearing a picture from her engagement ceremony. It is her birthday in January and I am going to print stamps using a picture taken at a party to celebrate her turning one year old. The stamps are sweet memories for me,” he said.
Chief Post Master General (Maharashtra Circle) H C Agrawal said that in the last few months, nearly 800 sheets of ‘My Stamps’ have been purchased. “We give a 10 per cent discount if a customer buys multiple sheets. We are expecting more stamps to be printed now that wedding season is about to start,” he added.
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