Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh): Even as the world celebrated "Moonversary" on 20th July, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 - the first-ever space mission to the Moon - a little-known man from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh possesses a rare autograph of a man who was part of that mission and later became the first person to walk on the moon.
Emmanuel John Patras' first autograph was of former president R Venkataraman, which he got in 1988, but his passion to collect the autographs of famous personalities took a “giant leap” on February 17, 1993, when he added to his collection a signed photograph of none other than Neil Armstrong.
A philographist, Patras' collection contains autographs of nearly 5,000 national as well as international personalities.
Neil Armstrong's autograph was the second autograph in his collection, and it was no easy task to get the famed astronaut's signature.
Narrating his adventurous story, Patras said, “I got the address of Armstrong from the US embassy. I wrote to the embassy, which directed me to an American library. I later received the copy of a page from a book which had Armstrong’s address. I wasted no time in writing a letter to him. In return, he sent me his photograph, which also had his autograph."
In later years, he collected the autographs of the members of royal families from across the world, including one of Queen Elizabeth, Maharaja Arvind Singh Ji Mewar from Udaipur, among other royals. He also procured the autograph of Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur, a former parliamentarian and former high commissioner of India.
He has also collected autographs from some of the famous politicians, including Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, R Venkatraman, and Pranab Mukherjee.
His most recent conquest was acquiring the autograph of Ramnath Kovind, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
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Patras, a former philatelist, said that he is committed to his "passion" and plans on pursuing it further.
