Kolkata eye doctor adds new stream to philately

Subhra Priyadarshini; PTI; May 19, 2005

As a tribute to legends who overcame their visual impairment to make a mark in history, a Kolkata-based doctor has put together a unique collection of stamps of famous blind people, adding a new stream, ‘ophthaphilately’, to the age old hobby, according to a PTI report.

From stamps of John Milton to Galileo and J. Pulitzer to Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Marconi and Theodore Roosevelt, Samar K. Basak's collection is a who's who of famous blind and visually impaired personalities.

Himself an eye specialist, Basak's unusual hobby stems from his recognition of the immense potential of people who have set aside physical shortcomings, lived a productive life and contributed to the development of mankind.

"Many of these people, eminent in different fields of human endeavour, were either born blind or lost their eye sight at some point during their lives. They were well known in their own right."

The 'ophthaphilatelist', as he calls himself, has chronicled all sorts of visual impairment -- bilateral (blind in both eyes) or unilateral (single eye blindness) in a poster which he published recently in the silver jubilee number of the International Eye Bank, a pioneer in the country's eye donation movement.