hyderabad madhuri reddy calls herself a grave hunter she got hooked to the hobby when she visited the armenian cemetery at uppuguda with her father as a 10yearold she got her first hotshot camera soon after and capturing images of sombre tombstones became a fascination a postgraduate student of history madhuri wants to study gravestone rubbing which involves copying inscriptions from tombstones on to a parchment paper for preservation for future generations madhuri can be called a taphophile one who loves tombstones or cemeteries it comes from the same origin as cenotaph and epitaph says sunder behearwani president hyderabad philately and hobby society hphs madhuri and several such people pursuing rare and interesting hobbies inhabit his society from vintage alcohol bottle label collectors to people who have dedicated their lives to the sole aim of acquiring railway tickets its an assortment of all sorts there are some who have the most curiously fascinating collection of match box labels and others who have been collecting erasers all their lives kesava rao treasurer of the society says hyderabad is a city where people spend hundreds of rupees buying fake old coins from the charminar footpath which has east india company carved on one side and a picture of goddess lakshmi or hanuman on the other chronicling the citys history through collections hphs exists for fifty years now with more than 1000 members including a junior section for those under 18 years the society started as a stamp club in the indo american library in moazam jahi market around 1960 unfortunately the library building was pulled down in 1962 the members of the stamp club then started meeting at each others places and founded the hyderabad philately society eventually over the years people with different hobbies approached us and this evolved into the present hyderabad philately and hobby society says behearwani also a foundermember of the society the society meets once a month every second sunday at deccan jems and jewellery store in abids the premises of which belongs to an erstwhile member of the society with dedicated collectors jurors of international competitions members of royal philatelic society authors of books on hobbies adorning the list of members of the society it is not an easy task to find recognition in hphs says rao he recounts how he had gained esteem in this society of connoisseurs when he displayed some rare notes ordered to be printed by nizam mahboob ali khan in the year 1917 from waterlow sons london at that time it would take six months for the notes to arrive from london to the calcutta harbour however before the whole collection arrived a couple of notes were sent to the nizam as samples who rejected the design saying it was not colourful enough he ordered all the notes be burnt at the calcutta port when the consignment landed and ordered fresh notes be minted at the nasik press a couple of years later the notes i had were part of