Signature series

Welcome to the world of Kaustubh Sathe,an avid collector of autographs for the past 10 years. Speaking about his hobby,he says,“Collecting autographs was a chance beginning. An autograph book for a present in school was all that I needed to start. Eventually,I first went about cultivating contacts,and finally when in Class X,I got my first autograph of Sanjay Upadhaya. Ever since,I have been collecting autographs.”

Collecting would be an understatement to describe the 1400 odd autographs that Kaustubh has hoarded over the last ten years,elaborating more he adds,“I have sorted out the collection in different groups like cricketers,Indian classical maestros,Marathi artists,authors,Bollywood stars,politicians,singers and composers and so on. The most autographs I have are of cricketers,which number close to 300. The others are equally important though. Some of the more famous people that I have on record include cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar,Brian Lara,Ricky Ponting,singers Lata Mangeshkar,Asha Bhosale,and politicians Raj Thackeray,Vilasrao Deshmukh,Pramod Mahajan and Sharad Pawar. My personal favourite,however,is Jonty Rhodes’s autograph,which is not only unique but also rare because there are not many people I know who own his autograph. ”

While his hobby keeps him busy for extended periods of time,Kaustubh has held two exhibitions of his autographs in Pune and Dombivli. Aout his future endeavours he says,“I really hope I will be able to get autographs of APJ Abdul Kalam and Madhuri Dixit in the near future. As far as my current exhibition plans go,there will be on exhibition at the Tilak Smarak Mandir on May 23.”