An enduring love for erasers and sharpeners

In April, when Anuradha Shekher returns to her home in the United States, she would not be travelling light. Besides the regular suitcases and baggages, she would be carrying boxes of erasers. She is essentially shifting her collection of erasers in Mandaveli to her home in California. An avid collector of erasers and sharpeners since her schools days at Rosary Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Anuradha, in her mid-40s now, has made sure this hobby has stayed with her, in fact grown with her wherever she went.

“I have close to 5,200 erasers of different shapes, sizes and colours, as well as a collection of sharpeners numbering over 100,” says Anuradha, who holds a PhD in Genetic Studies and Type II Diabetes and is a Carnatic musician.

Currently on a holiday in Chennai (Anuradha is daughter of theatre personality and politician S.Ve. Shekher), she has decided to carry some of her enviable collection to the U.S. and display them during the next Navarathri kolu celebration.

“Keeping kolu is a tradition I continue to follow, so this time I want to take some erasers from here and make a bigger and better display with them,” says Anuradha adding that she has close to 1,000 erasers at her home in the U.S.

Fascination for these stationery items began when she was in middle school. “I would never take the brand-new erasers to school fearing I would lose them,” she recalls. Family and friends travelling to countries added to her collection bringing unique erasers with them when they returned to Chennai. “There is a t-shirt shaped eraser that my grandfather gave and a transparent eraser given by my mom. There is another in the shape of a bulb,” she says.

Among the sharpener collection is one shaped like a piano and another, like the London post office. “Whenever my friends think of erasers, they think of me and that really has helped me increase the count,” says Anuradha, who does nature photography and has been bringing out a calendar with photographs captured by her for the last four years.

“I store the erasers in Tupperware boxes and other containers. When I feel gloomy, there is a special joy in opening these boxes and counting the erasers,” she adds.