Meet Prashant Pandey who collected around 500 HMT watches. Pandey wants to create online HMT museum shortly.
passion varies from person to person. While some people have passion for foreign-made products, others are fond of swadeshi products. Prashant Pandey belongs to the latter category. Pandey has been collecting watches for the last three years. His passion of collecting HMT watches made his five-year-old daughter follow him.
What made him collect watch?
Prashant Pandey is a strong supporter of Swadeshi products. Pandey considers HMT watches are an excellent example of a made in India product. “As an infant my aunt would put me to sleep by creating the tick tick sound of a mechanical watch by clicking her finger nails close to my ears. My first encounter with an HMT watch was when I saw an HMT watch on my grandfather’s wrist. It was an HMT quartz watch that was given to him by his organization. The other memory was of a visually impaired gentleman, who was reading time by feeling the dial of an HMT brail watch. As I grew up my memories of HMT watches faded until one day when I was travelling back late night from the Bangalore airport to my home and saw the HMT Bhawan on my way. The name HMT brought back my childhood memories and I decided to find out if they were still making watches,’’ narrates Pandey
Family support
According to him, these watches are pocket friendly creating a collection needs time and money and without the support of family it’s difficult to pursue it. “I have a very supportive family specially my wife. She has been very supportive and encouraged me to pursue my hobby. Some of my colleagues saw my watch and now they have an HMT watch on their wrists as well,’’ he said. He exhibits his watches often to close friends and on the facebook page (facebook/HMTwatchespicturegallery) and group (facebook/HMTwatchcollectors) to help people understand that HMT made beautiful watches so that they do not fade away from the minds of general public.
He wants to request the government of India to pay some attention to the “made in India” along with “make in India” products. “I believe the future lies with our next generation. My five-year-old daughter Shubhangi is already an HMT fan and I also meet lot of kids and teenagers who proudly wear their HMT watches. Most of the members on our group are between 25 and 34 year,’’ he said.
–Jurmoloya Rava
source: http://www.cityplus.jagran.com / City Plus, Jagran / Home / by Jurmolya Rava / 2014-10-09