PROFILE

Photographs by Rupinder Sharma

Everything about Anupam Kamal’s collection is razor-sharp. Thai punch daggers, Chinese axes, Naga bows and arrows and what have you. They spill over on his living room table in South Delhi’s Hauz Khas as he runs a loving eye over a heap of knives. Attempting to count them, he warns, is a futile exercise. Kamal says: “Let’s just say I have them in a couple of hundreds.”

The former software professional and current general secretary and treasurer of an NGO called Ishwar, Kamal is gung-ho about his assortment of jagged instruments. In fact, he’s so downright obsessive that he recently coaxed an unsuspecting foreigner to part with a pocket knife for around $100. He says smugly: “He’d taken it out to sharpen his pencil while asking me for directions. I knew immediately that I had to add it to my collection.”

What the $100 bought him was a Gerber knife (a famous Oregon-based knife-maker brand) with a titanium blade and a serrated edge.

headstart

It has taken years to build up the collection. “It stems from a passion. I buy, beg and borrow,” smiles the 41-year-old. It is a fervour that kick-started when as a five-year-old, he wheedled his father into buying him bows and arrows from the Meghalaya stall at the trade fair of Asia 1972 in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. He still has the set.

It’s a strange hobby he admits, and it has even resulted in some people labelling him a ‘disturbed soul’. But he ignores such barbs and continues to pad up the eclectic collection sourced Kalimpong, Bhutan, Sikkim, Kashmir, Amritsar and Rampur.

His passion takes him to flea markets all over the country. On other occasions he has bought them at different state emporia and even ordered them over the Internet. “A lot is of foreign origin like the Sheffields and the Victorinoxes which were not available here 20-30 years ago,” he adds.

It’s a difficult passion to harbour as it demands investment of time and money. “Most importantly these are weapons and have to be kept securely. Apart from a few that are displayed, the rest are kept in a safe in the house,” says Kamal.

collection wise

There are pocket knives, some simple and others foldable, along with intricately carved sheaths with beautiful Nepalese kukris inside.

Then you see fine hunting Mizo Bowie knives, Kashmiri chhuris, cute paper-cutters and tournament darts, Chinese daggers, Swiss-made kirpans from Victorinox, button knives (push-button switchblade knives) and German bayonets. You come across kitchenware such as cheese knives, meat-choppers, serrated spoons — the array is mindboggling.

The showstopper of his collection is a rare 110-year-old Mauser bayonet that can’t imported easily as a restricted item for the armed forces. Referred to by Allies as the ‘Butcher Blade’ because of its shape, Kamal also has the 1898 bayonet held in a photograph by a World War I soldier.

“When I was gifted the Mauser by a Colonel, the sheath was dented and rusted and had to be restored,” says Kamal. He does restoration work himself. Once a month he likes to take out the collection and give it a good wipe.

You might wonder whether it falls within the law to hoard on such sharp objects without a license. Kamal brushes aside such worries as he has licences for both knives and guns. “I own a gun and air rifles because I am a special police officer,” he says.

Kamal doesn’t collect every little thing that comes his way. He feels that it is the perfection of the object, where it comes from, the brand and even the sentiment of the person who is giving it out which counts. “But when I’m on the lookout, I keep an eye open for Damascus steel, that is hot-forged steel, particularly when it comes to hunting knives,” he says.

He cherishes the story behind a Jim Frost knife (US cutlery brand). ‘Knife’ however is a misnomer for this one since Kamal reveals a 21-inch half-sword with a gaping Puma at its head and a Rosewood handle. It came his way at a Pakistani exhibition.

Ask about a certain Colonel’s name pasted on the side of a dagger and Kamal reveals a curious habit. He likes to etch the name of the original owner on an item. “That way the person who has gifted or passed it on to me would be happy to see the recognition of his contribution,” he says.