Three distinct hobbies, one family

Ashwini Shrivastava
Gwalior, Mar 30, 2008 (PTI) Meet the Maheshwari family that
nurtures unique hobbies.
While H B Maheshwari is an avid coin collector, his son
is in to gathering autographs of celebrities and his daughter
loves amassing polythene bags to save the environment.
"I have been collecting coins for some 50 years now. I
have more than 10,000 coins of different nations, cultures and
royal estates. They are like a treasure to me," said
Maheshwari, convener of Indian National Trust for Art and
Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Gwalior Regional Chapter.
His collection has coins belonging to the kingdoms of
Chandragupta and Ashoka.
"The collection is now worth, may be a crore of rupees. I
have some very rare coins which are now impossible to find,"
Maheshwari said.
"I had to travel to many places and invest a hefty sum of
money to achieve the distinction," he added.
His son Neelkamal and daughter Kamakshi also possess the
same passion for their hobbies.
Neelkamal has been collecting autographs of famous
personalities from the field of sports, politics,
entertainment, business and arts.
Be it Bill Gates, M F Husain, Sachin Tendulkar,
Rajnikant, Jackie Chan, Elizabeth Taylor and Neil Armstrong,
he has autographs of more than 2,500 such nationally and
internationally acclaimed personalities.
"I have invested around Rs five to seven lakh to enrich
my collection. I travelled across the length and breadth of
the country to get the autographs," said Neelkamal.
"I had to go to Mumbai and stay there for almost a
fortnight to get M F Husain's autograph. I spent about Rs
25,000 in the process," a proud Neelkamal said.
He never gets autographs on paper, but only on the
photographs of the celebrities themselves.
"Everybody wants autographs of celebrities, but they do
not know about their lifestyles. I take the autographs on
photographs and exhibit them in big cities all over India so
that people at large can know something about them," said
Neelkamal.
He has successfully organised two solo exhibitions -- one
at Gwalior on March two, 2006 and another at Chennai on July
31, 2006 -- on 'Autographs on Photographs', the first of its
kind in the country.
Maheshwari's youngest daughter, Kamakshi, has a strange
hobby. She collects polythene bags from homes, markets, malls
and passers-by and in return gives them paper bags.
People from different countries send her parcels of
polythene bags throughout the year.
"I visit schools and colleges to collect polybags and
brief them about the harm these cause to our surroundings.
Many cows and other animals die after consuming polythene
bags. My initiative is just a step towards making masses aware
and discourage them from using polythene," she said.
Kamakshi has secured a place in the Limca Book of Records,
2008, courtesy her hobby. PTI