Recently, 50-year-old Shivnath Gaikwad entered the Limca Book of Records for having collected 1.55 lakh railway coupons. Neatly sorted by denomination and secured by rubberbands, these used railway coupons are currently staring from a cot like a stash of illicit notes. Next to them, is the Limca Book certificate—a piece of paper that is as much vindication for Gaikwad as it is validation. "Everyone used to think I was crazy at first, even my family," says the Thane resident, whose affair with tickets started several years ago, on a 70-paise bus ride from Vadibandar to Girgaon when he thought to himself, "People collect stamps and coins. Why can't I collects tickets?"
He was 18 then. At 42, he had amassed enough tickets and passes to hold an exhibition in Thane in 2007. Today, at 50, Gaikwad is sitting next to the precious collection of 1.55 lakh railway coupons and speaking of reaching a figure of 2 lakh. It is a collection that took six years and several deliberate detours to Andheri, Borivli, Kandivli and Goregaon stations to build. "I had observed that at these platforms, you tend to find a lot of discarded coupons," says the Thane resident, whose job at Butcher island (around one hour from Gateway of India) would take up 15 hours of each day and entailed various modes of commute including the train, bus and ferry.
As revenge against the melancholy of this commute, Gaikwad decided to travel some more. Since 2008, he made it a point to travel to Andheri, where he would head straight for the ticket counter. Here his treasure would be waiting under the row of red CRVM machines. "I would quickly scoop up the punched coupons, stuff them in a plastic bag and head for the next station," says Gaikwad. Sometimes, amid the used coupons, he has even found unused ones, mostly rupee-one coupons which he would promptly gift to women standing in the nearby ticket queue.
On two occasions, though, the station master and a railway cop at Andheri asked him what he was up to. "They feared misuse but I showed them my file," says Gaikwad, referring to the plastic file bearing photos of his 2007 exhibition of bus tickets which he carries everywhere. "I told them it was a hobby. They understood," says Gaikwad, who used to sort his treasure by denominations 1, 2, 4 and 5, record the total number for the day in a notebook and celebrate when he reached round figures. "Even colleagues, who used to laugh at me, would help me sort at work sometimes," he smiles.
Besides a keen eye that notices changes such as "rupee-one coupon has changed from yellow to blue", the hobby has also equipped him with spontaneous insights into the workings of Indian Railways. "All the coupons found on the western railway stations bear electronic punched numbers while the ones at Thane, Bhandup and Mulund stations, bear manual stamps," says Gaikwad.
Throughout our conversation, every time a kid came up the narrow metal stairs to fetch a plastic ball from his first-floor balcony, Gaikwad would ask them not to touch the coupons. The hobbyist has become a stickler for maintenance. At home, he keeps his collection covered with plastic at all times and even dusts them from time to time. "I have to protect them from ants, water and rats," says Gaikwad. Recently, while applying for the Limca Record, the part-time actor who has played a cop on TV several times, had to get a character certificate from the cops. Gaikwad's friend Mukim Khan, standing nearby, volunteers his own version. "He has become more caring," says Khan. Besides, for what it's worth, Gaikwad has also never travelled without a ticket.
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