The calendars are available for ₹400 each at the philatelic bureaux of Bengaluru General Post Office and head post offices in Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Belagavi. The e-version can be downloaded free. 
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

India Post Karnataka circle, in partnership with #ReclaimConstitution, has come up with a one-of-a-kind augmented reality-enabled calendar with the theme ‘Constitution of India – A philatelic journey’.  

Each month of the 2025 calendar showcases postage stamps that resonate with the Indian Constitution and its making. Adding an interesting layer to it, the calendar gives an interactive experience by overlaying 3D content related to significant moments in Indian history on each page. All one needs to do is to scan the pages using their phone to see audio-visual content of Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ or Ambedkar’s Constituent Assembly speech popping up over the page in real time.

First of its kind 

“This is the first time we have come out with AR-enabled calendars,” said S. Rajendra Kumar, chief post master general, Karnataka circle. “It is to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Republic of India. We have mainly used postal stamps released on related subjects, and materials used are mainly from the archives of the films division,” he added.

An attempt to recollect the efforts behind the drafting of the Constitution, Kumar notes that the calendars are also a tribute to the makers of the Constitution. The design and curation of the calendar has been done by #ReclaimConstitution.

For Vinay Kumar of #ReclaimConstitution, it was also an attempt to revive the declining interest in philately with the help of technology. “It is the 75th anniversary of the Constitution. Usually post office issues stamps for these milestones. But, in the past few years philately as a hobby is declining in popularity among people,” he noted. 

Noting that it used to be one of the popular hobbies while he was growing up, he remembered how stamps helped to learn beyond what was documented in textbooks. “Integrating technology to these calendars is also an attempt to encourage people to think about stamps again and bring their attention back to them,” he said.

Collecting Constitution stamps

Stamps being a treasure trove of information, Mr. Kumar has been in the process of collecting all stamps related to Indian Constitution. The idea was also to attempt and create something unique with them to build more awareness, he noted.

As New Year was around the corner, he thought it might be a good idea to arrange them on a calendar although there were no plans to print it then. He then shared it with Chief Post Master General who was impressed by the idea and offered to publish the calendars.

“In the past, they had published AR-enabled post cards. This, therefore, comes as sort of an extension to that,” Mr. Kumar said. The technology was executed with the help of Bengaluru-based AR applications developer FlippAR.

The calendars are available for ₹400 each at the philatelic bureaux of Bengaluru General Post Office and head post offices in Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Belagavi. The e-version can be downloaded free.