History in a suitcase: This Chennai resident has been collecting newspaper clippings for 30 years

We made Dalgona coffee, baked banana bread, played board games, and even picked up the old habit of reading again. But for 46-year-old Chennai resident Vijay Shekhar, the lockdown meant something different — it presented an opportunity to add more structure to his three-decade long hobby of collecting newspaper clippings of important events across the world.

While bigger libraries and institutions devote a large space for this kind of archival exercise, Vijay is doing it at a much smaller scale: his entire collection fits into a big suitcase. “The past year gave me a chance to revisit many old news items. Looking at such clippings, which I have collected over the years, and reminiscing about ‘Oh-so-this-is-how-it-happened’ gave me the ultimate kick,” says the communications professional.

Past perfect

It all began in 1991 when Vijay, then a 16-year-old, was jogging in Jamshedpur. “It was a normal day in May but people seemed unusually quiet. I overheard someone saying, in Bengali, ‘Rajiv Gandhi has been ‘shot’ in Madras’. There was a newspaper vendor around the corner and I quickly bought a copy. I felt it was important to preserve that.”

Since then, Vijay took it upon himself to cut and keep aside reports of many important world events. So far he has culled over 300 clippings, apart from entire special newspaper copies and magazines, but the one he treasures the most is the original full newspaper of The Statesman of August 15, 1947, which he got after making several visits to the newspaper’s office in Kolkata. “I found some of these valuable magazines and newspapers in second-hand bookstores as well, where people might have dumped them without seeing their value. For me, it was like finding treasure.”

Vijay does not only just save reports of historical interest; he also keeps aside interesting snippets that catch his eye. “Remember the time when (there were rumours that) Lord Ganesha drank milk? I remember standing in a queue and seeing the milk disappearing,” he says. The next day, Vijay carefully kept aside newspapers that reported that incident.

In search of cheer

Vijay has kept aside clippings from the COVID-19 coverage in various newspapers: He subscribes to four. “For most people, they become scrap after a few days. I derive value from that scrap.”

The 46-year-old prefers clippings from newspapers that are accessible to him; the only exception to that was when India won the cricket World Cup in 2011. He then asked many of his friends across the country to send him coverage of the triumph in the newspapers, from their respective cities.

Whenever he gets free time, he opens up his collection to either recall old incidents or add newer insertions. “However, there is one small problem in that: 60% of my collection is primarily sad news, while 40% is what can be termed as happy ones,” says Vijay. Despite the rush of COVID-19-related updates coming his way, Vijay is looking forward to seeing his big suitcase being filled with more cheerful entries. “My collection depends on how the world shapes up. I hope to see a happier world.”