His interest in matchboxes started as a 15-year-old when his father, a chain smoker, brought home different varieties.
In the next 22 years, Arvind Kumar Pai’s collection of matchboxes and labels has grown by over one lakh featuring some 20,000 varieties. More than 70% of the collection was amassed from roadsides, public places and so on during his extensive travels across India.
“My father Muraleedhara Babu was a gentleman but used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day. It could have created a negative impact on me. Fortunately, I was never influenced by his bad habit and rather began stocking matchboxes discarded by him. The hobby got a real shot in the arm when I moved to Chennai for work in 2006. I used to go to local tea shops during night shifts where matchboxes were ubiquitous,” says Mr. Pai from Cherthala who is a government school teacher.
The phillumenist says that 50% of the matchbox varieties have been collected during some 60 visits made to different parts of Tamil Nadu, while also picking up unique labels from other parts of India. Indian matchboxes make up most of his collection while foreign labels come to less than 200.
Mr. Pai terms his matchbox collection a “low-cost hobby”. “As a travel enthusiast, every trip I made helped to expand my collection. Last month, I along with my mother and a few friends visited Sabarimala. I gathered around 50 matchboxes of multiple varieties during the visit. Apart from roadside finds, I spent less than ₹20,000 to buy matchboxes over the past 22 years to reach this milestone,” he says adding that the images depicted on matchboxes tell a lot about Indian art, culture and lifestyle.
Mr. Pai, who is also a notaphilist, entered the Limca Book of Records in 2018 for having the largest collection of 1 rupee notes. Last year, his collection of one-rupee currency notes reached one lakh milestone. Interestingly, he and his mother Renjitha Bai feature in two records – in the Limca Book of Records after he sent her an envelope with the most number of stamps (322 stamps) pasted on it and in the India Book of Records for collecting 1,004 notes of ₹10 denomination starting with the serial number 1125 representing the birthday of his mother (November 25). He also keeps a good collection of stamps and coins.
