Do you remember what hobby you acquired as a 4 or 5 year old? Have you ever paid attention to the tiny details in your surroundings?
Let me introduce you to a 10 year old girl, named Asmi Chavan and her story of being a young phillumeny…
During a trip to Kerala, when she was 4-5 years old, she found a matchbox on the ground and was fascinated by it. Her father fondly recalls,
When we came back from the trip, she brought the matchbox to me and asked what it was. It took me back to the time when I was her age and found a stamp on the ground. I took it to my dad and asked him about it. That's how my journey to becoming a passionate stamp collector and a philatelist began, and now I have over 10,000 stamps. It's so enthralling that we are so alike!
Her parents encourage her by helping her to expand the collection every Friday, and her father takes her to a wholesale antique market where she handpicks the boxes she wants. “Sab hi leke jao!” says the shopkeeper, impressed by Asmi's interest.
One day, she made a quiz for her dad. One of the questions read, "Which is Asmi's favourite day of the week?" Her father chose Sunday because it was a day off, but he was wrong. When he asked her, she said with shiny eyes, "Friday!"
On the anniversaries of her 500th and 1,000th matchboxes, her parents bought her matchbox-themed cakes to encourage her.
The most expensive matchbox she has was a gift from her dad on her birthday, featuring a set of Mughal Empire themed matchboxes.
Asmi says her favourite matchbox is the one with the Elsa theme.
She now has over 2,000+ matchboxes. She stores all her matchboxes in a plastic album to preserve them. She adds new matchboxes to her collection every Sunday, and if she doesn't get new ones, she goes through all her matchboxes every Sunday. This helps her remember each matchbox she has, so she knows if she already has a particular one or needs it.
Her father joined several phillumeny groups online and contacted other matchbox collectors. They were always fascinated by Asmi's collection at such a young age and often gave her some from their own collections for free.
Some things she has learned through this hobby is discipline and management and organisation of things and time.
Asmi's journey is a testament to the power of curiosity and positive parenting. Every parent should realize their duty to shape their child's future, impact them positively and maintain a healthy relationship with kids. As Walt Disney rightly said, “Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” This perfectly depicts Asmi's odyssey from observing a matchbox on the ground to collecting thousands of them.
Wishing Good luck to Asmi for her future!
Written by Apeksha Jadhav
Apeksha wrote this article as a participant of the Media-Makers Fellowship's July'24 cohort.
This article was adjudged the 'Best Profile' created in Week 1 of the program.
Comments