User:Aditi0104/sandbox

Aditya Vij (born January 23, 1973) is an entrepreneur, a fashion industry consultant, an educationist, a collector and a farmer. He has been in the field of fashion Industry for the last 23 years. He runs his own sourcing company for the last 11 years called Imperitive Sourcing and caters to markets across south America and Europe. He has worked with Leading brands in senior positions like Benetton / Triburg / SD apparels handling multiple brands. He has also been imparting education to students as an Industry speaker and expert and also as a guest faculty.

He is better known for his contributions to restoring history, the unheard and unrecorded history and is an avid collector; history hunter and restorer. He has been covered by many media both national as well as international.

Biography
Aditya Vij is a man dawning many hats; he is a retrophile; an anthropologist, a management and fashion teacher, a farmer and an avid collector and an artifact hunter / restorer; a collector of all that may eventually become unknown stories without a record. He has been putting together things that have been fast disappearing in the last 100 years as well as things that have been a part of the country’s history and of peoples lifestyles at some point in time.

His journey about the past and self exploration, has been one; not to find the routes but to be rooted into the ever changing world of today. We live in a world where everything changes in no time, things are made for one time use and aesthetics are out of the window, sorry to say but ugly to a great extent. He in his small endeavor wants to put together the story of our past, which was so beautifully crafted by nature and man together.

As he says -- I want people to see how it was and how it has changed It's been a discovery cycle of fascination, a self exploration; new category addition being an ongoing cycle, each one throwing bigger surprises and even bigger charms along the way of its exploration. Dwelling into the past may not be a great Idea, but what’s present without its past. How does one relish the new without knowing the old. It’s the journey that matters,  not where we are. In this fast paced world a lot moves on and a lot is left behind. It’s my Endeavour to save the past and keep it alive so the path followed is known and appreciated. While it is practically impossible to have all the aspects covered; the attempt and the focus is to achieve it. I never got hooked up to one category since all that is old looked gold and hence “ the collector of the world “ got coined up.

This is a passion which keeps the learning curve always going for him, new categories / new names /new brands; keep coming up and surprises one every other day. He  has donned many a hats in his life, till date from being a corporate slave, to being an entrepreneur, to being a professor to being a social mobilizer, to being a collector, the to do more spirit has never been ebbed. The latest hat, he is looking forward to wearing is the one of a curator; in my own private museum – to make the next generations know and see how it all started to where it has come.

Here’s a peep into his world of vintages -

Vintage/ Classic Cars - He has 15 vintage and classic ones. The oldest being a 1928

Chevrolet  to a 1934 Austin ruby to dodge/ Plymouth/ Morris to Hudson to Vauxhall and the latest is a Premier Padmini of 1980s.

Two wheelers - He has 12 classic two wheelers; the oldest ones being Vespas Italian 1960’s to Lambrettas of 1960-70’s; to a BSA Bond to Vijay super and Lamby polo.

Cameras – He has  a collection of over 850  vintage and classic cameras where

the oldest one dates back to 1890’s, and many from early 1900 to 1930’s and 1940’s. His collection includes many iconic brands from Leica to London & stereoscopic Co to Norton to Agfas across decades to Mamais to Bell and Howell to zeiss to welta to adox to solida to Rolleiflex to rolliecords.

Radios - He has  been trying to put together the tube radios and his collection has 50 plus different radios with brands like Phillips, Murphy, Telerad, Ecko Roberts, Siemens televoice.

Watches - Wall clocks/ table clocks and wristwatches – this is one of his biggest collection in terms of number. 200 plus pendulum/ wheel wall clocks of different decades all either vintage or classic; Iconic brands like Smiths/ Wehrle/ Napolean/ Rivex to Scientific to Ansonias to Crest.

The Table watch collection has 700 plus pieces in it. It has again classic/ vintage ones with brands like Wehrle/ Favre-leuba/ HES/ Europas/ Switos/ West clox/ Anglo swiss watch co/ Felock/ Enicar/ Pawas and many more. Most of them are from British to German to French to American to Indian to eastern European models.

The  wrist watch collection is relatively a small collection of 48 vintage and classic wrist watches and includes brands like Favre Leuba/ Henri Sandoz/ Omega/ West end prima/ Roamer/ Titus/ Jayco to about 22 different models of HMT.

Books  - The books collection goes to about 4500 plus books from  1800s to early 1900’s. The collection has books by great authors like Kipling’s/ Rabindranath Tagore/ Emma Watson to titles like the Robinson Crusoe/ The Gardener/ Under The Deodars to Vishnu Puran. The collection also includes American comics starting from 1940’s to 1970’s, a huge no of Amar Chitra Kathas to Indrajal comics to the Indian comics of 1970’s / 80’s and 90’s. This also includes a big collection of Archie’s and tinkles.

The smokers corner - Lighters/ old cigarette boxes/ Tin boxes of cigarettes/ Match boxes/ match box covers. The category consist of about 100 plus lighters all from different  ages 1950’s to 1990’. Airline lighters when one could smoke in airlines. Old cigarette cardboard envelopes collection includes 50-60 cigarette envelops of 1940s to 1970s. Tin boxes of cigarettes from an era when cigarettes were packed and sold in tin boxes, about 20 of them and this also has about 30 metal match box slip on covers; which were used to protect the match boxes.

A collection and history off the matchboxes with 10000 plus matchbox labels. They tell the story of the society with landmark events and icons, this has been a collection that has been close to his heart. From 1920’s when matchboxes were not made in India but in Sweden / japan and other places. The Indian Maharajas used to send their pictures to be printed on the match box covers and brought back into India.

British Memorabilia – The British left India  but their remnants have been a collectors treat. Aditya has put together British marks across many categories – from the 1911 Delhi Durbar coronation plate; to British pens to ink pots to their boxes to Maps to the British Indian Army collectables.

Bollywood memorabilia --- In India we don’t survive without the bollywood story. A collection of some vintage bollywood related stuff includes vintage bollywood posters which date from 1940’s to 1980’s. synopsis copies of the movies ..sold in the 1950’s and 1960's  movie projectors used to show the movies to name a few bollywood artifacts.

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Typewriters  -- More than 80 typewriters starting from 1909 to 1980 depicting the evolution of the typewriters; the brands included are Smith Crona Glaxie 12; Remington Rand 1946 model; Jayco; Olympia; Remington 1909 model; Remington desktop–Italian model; Remington –Travel- riter; Underwood18; Smith Crona 301; Groma Callibri; Smith crona S-55 1955 model; Underwood light; Brother cassette –correct o riter; Remington –Sherry rand; Remington  portable 1921 model; Remington 20; Smith crona Electra automatic; Brother Deluxe850TR to name a few.

Weights – Seer/ baats – having put together 200 plus baats and seer; from 1600’s to 1950’s the story of weights/ their foundries and how they differed has been a journey of the weights in India.

Quirky vintage pcs – maps / newspapers --- 4-5 maps which date from 1930’s to 1950’s. The most interesting one is the Delhi Province Map under the British of 1930’s and shows the 3 developed areas in Delhi and all the 250 plus villages in Delhi. The second is a map of Delhi of

1950 when the Diplomatic enclave came up. Apart from this old news papers; the most iconic one of these is a 1920’s news weekly from New Zealand. The pics in the same are an eye opener.

Fossils/ prehistoric man stone tools – Certified fossils and pre historic man tools dating to 1000’s of years old when man survived in caves as a hunter gatherer.

Tin boxes – His tin box collection has about 700 plus tin boxes which represent different eras and different stories each one a history icon in itself. The tin box collection goes back to 1930’s and covers till 1980’s.

War memorabilia / medals - 20 war medals; from second world war to medals awarder to Indian British soldiers to the 1965 war to the Kargil war. Just a small token of the laurels

some got while fighting for the nation.

Music and its tools – I His collections includes a small collection of Gramophones/ turn

tables/ music boxes/ projectors/ spool sets, about 25 of them put together along with a couple of musical instruments ( vintage / classic ones).

Paintings - having put together some paintings and pictures and photos representing the world and how it looked 70 to 100 years ago helps relate the past well.

Each category has its own charm and significance. Each one has a history, changing trend over

decades. Each symbolizing changing times, new technologies,. New ideas, new developments and  the changing human mind. Having said this and having spent most resources at his disposal from financial, space, time and efforts, He is constantly working to convert this passion into a “ back in time “ experience for generations to come, by making this dream come to reality, by creating a small Museum.

He has been extensively covered in national as well as International medias ; taking the unheard stories to the masses.