Thiruvananthapuram: For 31-year-old primary school teacher Arvind Kumar Pai, creating records is not new. But his latest fad is to break records he had already created.
Now Limca Book of Records has given him certification of having the maximum number of one rupee currency notes signed by 20 finance secretaries from 1949 to 2017.
The first one rupee note which was released post independence has been signed by a Malayali, K. R. K. Menon. Mr Pai who works at the Cherthala Town Lower Primary School as an English teacher has three such one rupee notes he signed.
When he collected them a few years ago from a collector, the value was Rs 6,000 each, and it has shot up to Rs 20, 000 now.
“I have one rupee notes amounting to Rs 11,111 ranging from 1949 to 2017 which have been signed by 20 finance secretaries - from Mr Menon to Ratan Watal. It was only during Mahatma Gandhi’s centenary birth year did the Indian Government come out with his picture in the currency notes,” he said.
Son of late Muralidhar Babu and Renjitha Bai, Mr Pai started working at the age of 14 due to poverty at home.
His passion for collecting stamps and currency notes had taken a sizable portion of his time, and he had to pursue his undergraduate and masters in history by correspondence.
He created history when he won the second rank in BA History from the University of Kerala as that was the first time a correspondence student walked away with the honour.
He also has in his vast collection of currency notes '10 which has the numbers of Independence Day (150847) as in American style of writing and also that of Republic Day (260150).
