COVER N. 226 - INDIA

Postmark: Ahmedabad G.P.C. 09.03.23  

Posted on the 9th March; Received on the 28th March 2023

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Lately I have been trying my hand at drawing and watercolour painting (don't be afraid, I'll keep it to myself....)

I am the worst artist in the world, and this is not false modesty. I can claim the title  for myself and I am sure that anyone that would be assaulted by one of my drawings, would right there, and without further ado, agree with me.

What has this to do with stamps?.... well, nothing. But, as a way to force me into actually drawing, I decided I would also keep some sort of graphic diary. Now this is probably the second offense I'm doing to society at large, because if I can't draw or paint, my handwriting has to be the least “graphicogenic” handwriting there is.

Yes, this is a problem that is still unrelated to stamps, but all this came to mind from looking at the nice cover I Got from India, today. Thanks a lot, Dilip.

I have stated it here before: I love to receive an envelope handwritten in a beautiful handwriting, and  Dilip's fills my bill. If only I could fill my pages with such  cursive, rounded, well proportioned, size conscious characters, well organised into words.... phrases.. periods... paragraphs..... 

 I guess it is not only the fact that my handwriting is horrible... the thing is that for the past 20 years or so, more that 95% of anything I have written must have been done in a word processor via a keyboard... so lack of practice must also play its part here... 

I also have never managed to keep a diary. I am to unorganised and undisciplined to do it. My new graphic diary will be one that will be filled in whenever I decide to do it, so periods between entries may be dissonant with the whole idea of a "Diary", but it's the purpose that matters most for me, so maybe I'll manage to be rather assiduous, at least for a while....

The First Africa-India Forum Summit was held in 2008, between the Heads of State and Government of the African Union and India as a way to reinforce the economic and development ties between the two regions, namely in what concerns  trade and industry, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), development of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Africa regional integration.  

The 1st forum took place in New Delhi, in April 2008, and it was agreed that it would take place every three years. The 4th edition of the Forum should have taken place in September 2020, but due to the pandemic situation, it never did and I could not find any information as to when it will be reconvened. 

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the second Forum, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2011, India Post issued on 25May2011 a souvenir sheet containing the two se-tenant stamps that can be seen on my cover, denominated at 5 and 25 Rupees, featuring, respectively, the image of  Asian and African elephants.

Asian and African Elephants can be readily  told apart by looking at their ears, since  the African ones have much larger, and rounded ears than their Asian cousins. Also, only Asian male elephants have tusks, while these are a feature of both male and female in what concerns the African dwellers, but since some elephants do not develop tusks at all, it's better to look at the ears... they tell the full story.

The postmark informs us that the cover was mailed from Ahmedabad, the largest and most populated city of the Gujarat State, located some 250 km inland to the West, from the North coast of the  Indian ocean.