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A collector's item
 Would you believe a small incident in the life of a little boy completely changed his life and helped him reach celebrity status? It did in the life of S B Raja
Seetharaman.
“When I was studying in class-VI in 1976, my mother asked me to buy groceries from a nearby shop. When I settled the bill, the shop-owner returned some change. Before putting the coins into my pocket, I looked at them and noticed that one
coin was different from others. Interestingly, that turned out to be a foreign coin. I took it to my father and asked about it and my father explained the value of the coin and asked me to start collecting coins. He also gave me some tips on how to collect them. That is how coin collection became a part of my life,” says
Seetharaman.
A multi-faceted personality, since he is a historian, numismatist and philatelist, Seetharaman has a philosophy that life needs a special meaning for everyone. His passion is collecting – collecting anything and everything.
He says what you collect is not important but how you collect is. “I came to know more about kings and queens when I started collecting coins and stamps,” says Seetharaman who has thousands of coins in his collection. He urges parents to motivate their children to ‘collect’. This will be a good hobby and make them use their time in a better manner, he feels.
 He explains that just like his knowledge of the world grew when he started collecting coins, children will learn more about history by themselves if numismatics were included in the school syllabus.
“You have to choose a topic and then start collecting, then you will master the topic,” says Seetharaman. He also has an exclusive collection of thousands of wedding cards, expired credit cards of different banks, calling cards and many other things.
He adds further that people do not know how to collect. Motivation is the most important factor and there must be spirit in the people to collect what they want to collect.
For instance, Seetharaman has chosen to collect coins depicting Mahatma Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana. He has sent his collection about Queen Elizabeth to her. He also had an opportunity to meet President,
Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, during an exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi and show him his collection.
 He got another opportunity to meet Kalam, after he became the President of India, when he visited Chennai. He recalls proudly that Kalam remembered him as the “coin man”.
Seetharaman is a life member of the Madras Coin Society, Gwalior Stamps and Coins Club and South India Philatelists Association, member of the International Bank Note Society, USA and associate member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
(INTACH).
Seetharaman did his graduation in economics from Vivekananda College, Chennai, (1985-88 batch) and got
postgraduation diplomas in marketing-sales management, public relations (both from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai), computers from Computer People's Network Centre, and
yoga from the Indian School of Yoga.
The 'collector' has won several awards: a gold medal, two silver medals and a special silver medal for his exclusive Queen Elizabeth collection during Coinex 2002 conducted by the Madras Coin Society. He also got three gold medals at the National- Level Numismatists Philatelists (NUPHILA) 2003 meet at Gwalior in November 2003.
 Basically, Seetharaman is an agent of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Oriental Insurance. He is a good writer and regularly contributes to HRD Times and
is the man responsible for the Madras Coin Society newsletter.
Speaking about his ambition and future, he would like to represent India in the global arena as a proud collector. He also wants to write a book about coins of the Republic of India. “Nobody has written about the coins of the Republic of India. I want to write a book which gives details about the coins we use,” he says.
Seetharaman's father, Dr A Srinivasan, retired additional director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, died in 1992. Raja Seetharaman has one elder sister and one younger sister and the three of them have performed magic with their old house in
Chennai.
 The 140-year-old house in Chintadripet, which draws everyone by its sheer beauty, has been renovated with great interest and a lot of pride.
They renovated the building without altering any of its old style: It is a ‘naalu-kattu veedu’ (with the quadrangle in the centre) and wooden pillars that have beautiful old brass plating. “Old buildings need not be demolished. If they are fit for renovation, they should be renovated and used. We wanted to set an example of how a 140-year-old house can be restored and used,” says this young achiever.
“This message will survive even after our death,” says
Seetharaman.
For more information, please contact:
S B Raja Seetharaman,
Old No 120, New No 58, Iyya Mudali Street,
Chintadripet,
Chennai-2.
Phone: 91-44-2845 0016
Mobile: 9840037001
E-mail: rajaseetharaman@yahoo.co.in
N
Arun Kumar
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