A
unique philately exhibition
 Fighter
planes, Boeing aircrafts, rockets, shuttles, jets and turbojets -
all were assembled within the four walls of an average spaced room
of HAL Sports Club. Well, not literally, but its stamp sized version
- at AERO PHILA 2000, a philately exhibition that had the aviation
industry as its theme.
The exhibition was organized by the city's Karnataka Rural Philatelic
Association (KRPA) in association with the Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited (HAL), Bangalore. The Chairman of HAL, Dr Krishnadas
Nair C G, in the presence of Wg.Cmdr.Rakesh Sharma and
Dr Sita Bateja, a  philatelist
of international repute, inaugurated the exhibition. The event attracted
over twenty thousand visitors.
Prabhakara M R, Organising Secretary of KRPA, came in for fulsome
praise from the crowd of visitors who gazed at over 7,500 stamps,
first day covers and airmails at the event, for educating them through
philately. The stamps were displayed under an array of balloons, parachutes,
propeller engines, air toys like hanging gliders, military air crafts,
besides those depicting the early aerial trials and first powered
flights by Wright brothers.
 Overwhelmed
by the public response, which included a large number of students,
Prabhakara M R said, "We try to call upon students to witness the
event. If they get motivated enough to take up stamp collection as
a hobby, we feel contented." His other philately exhibitions have
also been theme-based, revolving around agriculture, Mahatma Gandhi,
ecology and health. Recipient of over six international awards, Prabhakara's
collections of over sixty thousand stamps have about forty themes!
Inspired by a stamp exhibition in his village way back in 1976, Prabhakara
held his first exhibition in 1978 and since then there has been no
looking back. His team increased  over
the years, with philatelic enthusiasts from all over the state coming
together. Now they number twenty-five, with Vinod Putanikar, Rajgopal,
Raghavendra, Uma, Shobha, Divya and Sneha among others. When asked
about the future plans, Prabhakara replied, "The next one will
be based on the Information Technology." He said that he has started
working on the IT based exhibition to make it happen in the coming
year.
Quotable Quotes on the exhibition:
Dr Krishnadas Nair: "Stamps are story tellers of the past.
They speak history. More such exhibitions should be held to create
awareness."
 Wg.Cmdr.Rakesh
Sharma: "E-mail has taken over normal postal mail to the extent
that people call it 'snail mail'. Thanks to villages, where e-mail
hasn't entered, philately won't lose its popularity for a while."
Dr Sita Bateja: "Philately, once the hobby of Kings and
King of hobbies, has made its impact on the world."
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