Days of the Raj, chronicled through exhibition of postcards from the time

An exhibition of postcards from the early 20th century reminds us what things of beauty, utility and information they were, writes Ritika Kochhar

If you look carefully, you can find fascinating stories in mundane things like matchboxes, labels and even postcards. For example, one of the nuggets of information gleaned from an early 20th-century European postcard is that, even at the height of British rule in India, one pound sterling was worth 15 rupees. Another postcard, a photograph of English people and their staff on a houseboat in Srinagar explains that houseboats became popular because the Maharaja of Kashmir wouldn’t let outsiders buy property in his state. These postcards feature in a recently published book called Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj by