I AM OLD SCHOOL AND PREFER AUTOGRAPHS TO SELFIES ANYDAY

Ashish Jain

Who would have thought that the Entrepreneur of a shop of readymade garments in Karol Bagh would turn out to be such an avid autograph collector? Procrastinating his fun times with friends, he rushes to collect autographs as soon as shuts down of his lavish shop at 7:30 pm every day.

Here is Ashish Jain for you. Ashish is an Entrepreneur of Four Seasons Apparels at Tank Road market, Karol Bagh. He has been running this business successfully for 20 years now and is well known in the market.

6 years into philography, Ashish considers himself a novice. Before he started his collection of autographs, he used to frequently attend different events and festivals where several celebrities would be seen performing. It was the Times Select festival in Delhi in 2015 that converted his fascination into a hobby. This was when Ashish finally began collecting autographs and boy, he sure is loving it. In these 6 years he has collected over 400 autographs including those of 200 classical dancers and musicians, 40 spiritual gurus, 60 political leaders, 50 sportspersons and 50 others.

It is not easy to balance this hobby with work but Ashish ensures that he makes time for it. He closes his shop at 7:30 pm sharp and rushes to various events where celebrities are frequently seen. There are many times he procrastinates or cancels his plans to meet his friends to attend these events.

Ashish ensures that he leaves no stone unturned when it comes to making every autograph special and memorable. He collects most of them on first day covers and special covers.

In these days when the millennials chase celebs for selfies, Ashish proudly considers himself old school and prefers autographs to selfies anyday. He feels that autographs create history, whereas selfies are gone with the wind. They are like any other photograph, they can be deleted from the cellphone anytime.

Ashish has many autographs today but his notable ones are those of Amitabh Bachchan, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, famous Kathak dancer Deepak Maharaj (son of Birju Maharaj), and many more.

 

This article has been written by Pooja Gupta.

She is a freelance writer, anchor and a former Radio Jockey. She has written a web series, short films, screenplays, dialogues, stories, articles, promos, ads etc. She travels across India for hosting shows. For work, she can be contacted on pooja.gupta2178@yahoo.com.