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Jawaharlal Nehru with Lady Mountbatten is one of the many photographs collected painstakingly by Rajdeep Gupta (above). Picture by Tausheen Rubbani
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There’s nothing private about Rajdeep Gupta’s 43 fat albums — they do not contain pictures of his family. But then there is something personal — they bear testimony to his deep love for history and memories.
This septuagenarian has never been behind the lens, neither does he have a penchant for photography but he loves to collect pictures of public personalities clicked by others. A hobby that over the years has seen Gupta putting together a treasure trove, mainly cuttings from newspapers and magazines, of 25,000 pictures and photographs of freedom fighters, politicians, film stars, sportspersons among others.
So what triggered his off-beat hobby when he himself is not much of a photographer?
“One day, I was sitting with wife and two sons and going through our family albums when a thought suddenly struck me — there is nothing more personal than pictures and that they should be treasured. But then for an outsider, they have no importance. It was then that I decided to collect pictures of prominent figures of the society,” Gupta told The Telegraph while seated at his Railway Station Road residence in Giridih town.
The 43 albums, more like scrapbooks with picture cuttings pasted on them and proper captions scribbled below, have such rare freeze frames like a small Rajiv Gandhi playing with Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and Nehru lighting the cigarette of Lady Mountbatten.
“I also have pictures of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Lenin. There are rare photographers of freedom fighters too — a handcuffed Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandi and Jai Prakash Narayan,” said the proud owner.
Other than politicians and freedom fighters, famous faces in the fields of cricket, football and lawn tennis also find a place in the 74-year-old’s albums. Martina Navratilova, Boris Becker, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar are some of them.
The 74-year-old added that in the past, he wrote on various issues in newspapers and had also written letters to famous litterateurs, including Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Upendranath Ashq, Sumitranandan Pant, Amrit Rai, Mahadevi Verma and many others. “I also received replies from them, which now form a part of my collection,” he said.
Gupta has kept the albums at a room in his house and said anyone was welcome to go through them. “I love collecting pictures and feel very proud to show my work to others. I will carry on this hobby till my last breath,” he added.
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