My collection of stamps of Pakistan - 1956

Pakistan Post issued stamps on three different occasions in 1956. Luckily I have all the stamps issued during the year. 

The commemorative stamp in the top row above was issued on 23 March 1956 on the eve of Pakistan becoming the first Islamic Republic of the world. The myrtle green colour stamp with a face value of 2 ana had the building of Constituent Assembly Building Karachi on it.

The scarlet coloured stamp with the crescent and star in the centre row above was issued on 14 August 1947 on the eve of 9th anniversary of independence of Pakistan. The stamp was priced 2 ana.

A set of three stamps in the bottom row above with the map of erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was issued on 15th October 1956 on the eve of the holding of the first session of the National Assembly of Pakistan at Dacca. The stamps had a face value of an ana and a half (myrtle), 2 ana (sepia) and 12 ana (deep rose red).

Related Link:

Stamps of Pakistan

My Philatelic World (my previous blog that focused on hobby of philately only)
Postage stamps of Pakistan (Pakistanpaedia)

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My Explored Floral Photography

My wife loves flowers and gardening. She remains busy in decorating our small garden with beautiful and colourful flowers and green plants the year round, specially for the spring plantation. This gives me an excellent opportunity to satisfy my love of photography to take shot of best of the flowers in our garden. I usually go for macros to see and shoot the flowers from as close as possible to capture their beauty from the closest quarters.

Herein under are some of my compositions that I shared on Flcikr and were selected for Explore. And now am sharing it here for my blog viewers, specially those who love nature, flowers and photography.

Related links:

My floral photography

Lo!! The spring is here

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My collection of Italian stamps

A series of stamps bearing Syracusean coin (above left) were issued from 1953 to 1977 as above. In 1964 on 6^th December, a set of stamps (right above) was issued to celebrate the 6^th Stamp Day and depicted six Italian sports stamps within its own design.

My collection of stamps of Italy contains these two series and many others stamps that were issued in the period 1955-1970 as would be recalled by the collectors. If someone has more details on these stamps, I shall be too grateful and would update this post.


Related Links: 
Europe
My Philatelic World (my previous blog that focused on hobby of philately only)

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Postage stamps of the CCCP - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Many new stamp collectors today may not know which country the CCCP stamps belonged to as it has been decades since the collapse of USSR, the Union of Socialist Republics, emergence of many countries known today as the CAR countries and of course the lone Russia. Deprived of all the Baltic republics that the USSR usurped, the once mighty USSR is now reduced to plain Russia.

USSR was essentially a Eurasian socialist state that existed between 1922-1991 before its disintegration into many CARs and what finally remained of it as Russia. The USSR was since 1956 a one unit of 15 republics, most of which fought fro their long independence from the USSR and finally got the status of their original independent status prior to amalgamation into the USSR.

My stamp album contains stamps only of the CCCP and not of Russia (that is post 1991 era). In fact all stamps are up to 1975, when finally my active stamp collection came to an end. A page of the CCCP stamps is as shared above. I will add more pages of CCCP stamps in time.

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Banana Cake

Banana Cake is my wife's specialty and my sons' weakness. Wait - add me too in the list. She normally starts baking in the afternoons, while we are asleep. But soon the aroma of the fresh cake engulfs the entire house and wakes all of us. And the compelling aroma of the cake still in the oven acts like a pied piper and slowly and gradually all of us find her smiling by her cake in the kitchen. Unlike other days, this time I made it a point to take a photo of her baking to share it with my viewers.

Need less to say what happens in the next half an hour - the cake plate lies denuded of its guest which she bore for a while. We all thank her for baking and cakes and pastries she bakes for us. The banana cake yesterday was excellent, or extremely yummy that vanished in minutes. A portion of it remained for after dinner satisfaction of our sweet teeth. But it was meant for my nephew, who dropped by and the remaining portion was his delight.

I asked her for the recipe to share here - but no way since all are recipes are secretly hidden in her memory and we only get to "eat" these whenever she is in a mood of baking.

I will ask my younger son to request his mom for the chocolate cake someday and I will definitely share the delight whenever it is baked.

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Postage stamps of Bahrain from my album

Like the postal history of Kuwait that I posted a couple of days before, the postal history of Bahrain is no different, rather it is identical.  The first post office of Bahrain was opned in its capital city Manama on 1^st August 1884. Initially the British stamps with overprint “BAHRAIN” were used till 1933. The King George V appeared on the British stamps with the overprint.

From 1933 onwards till the independence of the British India, the Indian stamps with overprint BAHRAIN were used. The stamps of India bore the head of King George V (above left). From 1948 to 1960, the British stamps replaced the British Indian stamps. These stamps bore heads of King George VI (above centre) and then Queen Elizabeth II with the BAHRAIN overprint.

Bahrain finally issued its first indigenous stamp in 1960 bearing the portrait of Shaikh Sulman bin Hamed al-Khalifa with Arabic text. . In 1964 stamps depicting Shaikh Isa bin Sulman al-Khalifa (above right) were issued.  The postal services were finally taken over by Bahrain from the Britain on 1 January 1966.

My collection of stamps of Bahrain starts with the British stamps with BAHRAIN overprint bearing the head of Queen Elizabeth II issued after her coronation in 1953 (above left column) . The remaining stamps were issued from 1964-1966.

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Dolls and Toys of Thatta Kedona

Syes Asghar Javed Shirazi

Thatta Kedona is a welfare project that aims at uplift of the life of rural women and make them an independent earning hand. Herein under are handmade dolls and toys by the women of the project. These women are generally illiterate or marginally literate. But their handmade toys and dolls seem like work of professionals.

Visit Thatta Kedona Dolls House, for Questions contact Dr. Norbert Pintsch and for appointment at Lahore Show Room, Call Ilyas (0301-8456986) or visit Thatta Kedona Display Centers worldwide.

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