DKPA : Review of A Philatelic Passage through India's Freedom Struggle

An interactive CD produced by the CPMG Andhra Pradesh Circle
Created by Digi Animations Hyderabad

The CD aims to bring out the story of India's Freedom Struggle through the medium of Indian postage stamps. The colourful stamps of India have the capability of telling any story to a person who cares to listen. The 300 odd stamps selected for this CD portray the various aspects of the Freedom Struggle which culminated in India attaining independence on August 15, 1947, a date very dear to every Indian.

CD Description

The CD has two modes of operation - the play mode and the browse mode

Play Mode

The play mode is like a documentary movie of freedom struggle. The image of each stamp concerned with the topic is displayed with a small narration. You can select the Play All feature where the complete story is narrated topic by topic. The other option is to select the various clickable topics like The Great Awakening, Pre-1857 and First War of Independence, Pioneers and Birth of Congress, Moderates, Extremists, Gandhian Era, Struggle in the Assemblies, Valour of the Nation, Other Leaders, End of British Rule and the Dawn of Free India.

The narration is not very clear and seems noisy. There is no option to select or mute the narration or the music. This can be irritating sometimes. An option is to mute the sound using the volume control provided on the PC.

Play Mode Features : Play All, The Great Awakening ...

Browse Mode

This mode is categorized into three sub groups :

Chronicle
Magnify
Navigate

Chronicle presents a chronological sequence of the Struggle in an alphabetical order of names. A list of all the stamps is given on the right side ordered alphabetically. Clicking on any stamp creates a new list on the left side with a list of stamps pertaining to the specific chapter specified under the Chapter List. The specific stamp is displayed with a short story of the displayed stamp. A total of 306 Indian stamps issued from November 21, 1947 to December 5, 1998 are listed with 12 foreign stamps.

Clicking on the Stamp Specifications gives the specifications of the stamp like colour, date of issue, watermark, number of issues, perforation, stamps per sheet and denomination. There are however no details for the foreign stamps.

Stamp Specification

Magnify mode displays a collection of stamp images. You can place the cursor on the image to see a magnified image of the stamp with the specifications. This is a good feature and gives a view of the stamps at one go.

A little bit of the story of why the stamp was issued say in about 5-6 lines would have made a difference. Another painful thing is that you will have to go through each chapter individually to reach a specific topic or stamp. A search facility would have made a whale of difference here.

Navigate is a feature where you can look at the specification of each stamp in the order of issue of the stamps. This is a very good feature. A little more textual description of the stamp would have been ideal here. Next and Prev take you to the next or previous stamp in the list.

Suggestions for the Next Edition

The movie format of the CD is a painful feature which does not leave the user much option. You cannot cut or paste text, copy the image, search etc. It would be a welcome change if this format was modified in the next version. Another improvement that could be thought of is to provide mute and sound option for music and narration individually. A few details about each stamp would surely interest the philatelist and the historian. Movie clippings of the freedom struggle would enhance the presentation. An interactive quiz for the children could be thought of to make the Freedom Struggle more interesting to the children.