The authors of the book, Sangeeta and Ratnesh Mathur, have lived and worked in many cities in Asia and Europe. They began building a personal collection of Indian comics, books, maps, stamps, travel and film posters, music CDs and international film DVDs in the initial years of their travels. In 2003 they relocated to the Czech Republic, and after visiting Central Europe’s museums and antique shops, and regularly attending hobby club meetings, they began expanding their collection with a specific aim of creating a museum back in India. They added Indian picture postcards, lithographs, antiques in glass and porcelain, coins, princely state insignia and weapons, etc. In this endeavour, their focus, however, remained on the visual history of India and its towns.

 

Therefore they decided to write a book about 550 Indian postcards. Many of these postcards were sent by Czechs and their collection is thus a valuable source of information about their living in India about 100 years ago.

Ratnesh Mathur recalled that the book launch is taking place on a day exactly when 108 years ago on February 18, 1911, for the first time in the history the world's first official airmail flight has been succesfully concluded. And it happened in India. The first 6.5 thousand letters were transported by air from today's city of Prayagraj (that time Allahabad) to Naini.

 

The evening was commented and guests were introduced by Ms. Upama Biswas, editor of Sahapedia, which is an online portal for the arts, cultures and heritage of India. 

The audio-visual presentation of the book and of the history of Indian postcards, with the excursion into the Indo-Czech relations, was made by the authors themselves: Sangeeta and Ratnesh Mathur. They were invited to talk about their book, discussion was chaired by Professor Malavika Karlekar, Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Journal of Gender Studies. The Chief Guest of the event was Ms. Nirupama Kotra, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

The Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Milan Hovorka, at the beginning of his speach called for a minute of silence to honor the memory of victims of the terrorist attack in Kashmir on 14 February 2019.

During the book launch an exhibition of old picture postcards and other historical documents was also displayed at the Embassy as a good evidence of traditional Indo-Czech relations. Among them also a wooden mail box has been displayed on the stage.

The Embassy hall was completely full, all 145 chairs were occupied. Launch of the book describing old postcards, many of them discovered in the Czech Republic, was a really great event.