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Although I wasn’t academically inclined to the social sciences, I grew up  listening eagerly to mythological and other stories told by my aunt, and reading books in four languages. To add to the variety, my father is a connoisseur of many genres of music. I hence got a taste of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, Kishore Kumar’s versatile voice, Beethoven’s symphonies, Abba and The Beatles much before I knew what I was listening to. Needless to say, culture, language, music, travel, art and design have always fascinated me. More so, when they are all part of the same story.

As a disorganized boy, I learnt a little bit of everything, and wasn’t good at any of them. I got a few guitar lessons, some of tennis, had a small currency and stamp collection, average grades, and a restless mind. With time, I began to understand what my primary interests are and spent more time on fewer things. My love for innovation led me to scientific research, and that for variety made me a phillumenist (a matchbox collector for a hobby).

A common first reaction I hear when I tell someone about this is - “You collect matchboxes and call yourself by a fancy name? I can buy some and be one too!”. Well, there’s more to this. My father took matchboxes from hotel receptions when he traveled as a medical representative. We soon had them in different sizes, designs and even materials, and could already see that they were beautiful.

This sparked interest and we both have paid attention to every new matchbox we’ve seen ever since. Little did we know that we would someday be serious collectors. Matchboxes have given me lessons in history, science, evolution, language, design, marketing, piracy, art and trust, to say the least. You will soon know that this is no exaggeration.

I moved to Europe in 2014 when we had about 3000 different matchboxes and labels. We thought we had a pretty good collection. These mostly comprised of  those made in India. Themes varied from satellites, monuments, flags to deities, animals, sceneries, and just about everything else. They were also used to advertise movies, political events and grocery.

Popular designs lead to innumerable imitations, and when one sees many of these together, it is often hilarious. The following are imitations of the popular matchbox ‘Cheeta fight’ by Wimco, from my collection.

Soon, we realised that a lot of effort was put in to design them. This was the case all around the world. Sweden, Austria and Czech republic have been making extremely beautiful ones.

The adjacent picture has a series of matchboxes from 1956 by the Solo match works of the then Czechoslovakia,  showing monuments in the region.

I travel frequently within Europe, and get to collect a lot of matchboxes here. I exchange, and even ask for special matchboxes at cigar stores and hotels. It has added great variety, color and themes.

In the meanwhile, my father downloaded FB on his first smartphone which was bought to be able to video call me. He made friends with fellow phillumenists across the globe. He soon started receiving parcels from everywhere. Some even sent expensive ones, sweets and even souvenirs from their countries. The trust with which people did this astonished me. One man from Iran even visited us in Bangalore when he was on a trip to India.

The first word I look up the translator before traveling to another country is “matchbox”.

I stayed in Germany for three years during which I got to talk, meet with, and visit many collectors. Some even donated their collections to me since they wouldn't collect anymore. Megara from Thessaloniki, Greece, even sent me a parcel  of a 1000 beautiful ones without charging me for it! She said, “I wanted these to reach someone who would understand their value”.

I got life lessons from these interactions and stories they told. Everyone has a story to tell. I understood that human nature is the same, although we differ culturally or linguistically. It has been such a humbling experience.

Gautam Hemmady, a senior Architect and phillumenist from Delhi came home as a surprise  when he visited Bangalore. Since both my father and I weren't at home, he left a collection of Swedish matchboxes with Indian themes at the door.  

The one on the right depicts landscapes, sent by a student in Nanjing, China. On the left are labels from Britain, Greece, Czech republic and Slovakia from the mid-1900s.

My collection now has about 50,000 different boxes and labels from over 75 countries. The history of the Indian matchbox industry is intriguing. With swedish roots, local production began in the 1920s, and employed children as young as six. Bearing the independence struggle, bollywood cinema,  world wars, and even commercial products on their covers, matchboxes saw the evolution of our society in the last century. To be at the top of the competition, manufacturers printed beautiful covers with fine art. No wonder, collecting these is such a pleasure to many, including me.

The joy of having a collection, and being able to see all these in one place is very small in comparison to the journey that got me to it. To me, these matchboxes are tokens from the people I’ve had the pleasure to meet and places I got to see, which wouldn’t be possible as an ordinary tourist. Little did I know that matchboxes, generally perceived as insignificant, could carry so much beauty and add great value to my life.