KATHMANDU: Smarika Phuyal, who began her journey with live singing and music on stage, is widely recognized as a performer on the stage of ‘The Poet Idol’.

Her duet performance with Aastha Raut in “Jurukka Karnali” has recently made her well-known among many audiences.

Studying ethnomusicology at Kathmandu University, she has a strong attachment to her own name as well as to her collection, Smarika.

Influenced by her mother’s habit of collecting tickets, she also enjoys collecting old items. Nepal News asked her seven questions about this hobby:

Which new and old items are in your collection?
I have collected brochures and tickets of plays, programs, and concerts, matchboxes, cassettes/CDs, books, earrings, and so on. The number of matchboxes in various designs has now exceeded 50, which I have even ordered when friends went abroad.

What is the main reason you are attracted to collecting?
Old items are proof of change; they are rare. I am somewhat nostalgic and enjoy keeping memorabilia of old memories. I like thinking, “It used to be like this, it was like that.”

Do you remember what you first collected?
When I was in school, I collected cartoon stickers I saw. But I no longer have them. After that, I started collecting brochures and tickets of plays, programs, and concerts.

Does your collection include any rare items?
In my mother’s collection, I found a postal stamp from 1979, which is now part of my collection. It may not be rare for other postal stamp collectors, but it is rare for me because it is the oldest item with a date that I have found.

What kind of satisfaction do you get from collecting old items?
These old items make me imagine what their original owners were like. Just as a person lives a life, old items have lived a life in their own way. My grandmother might have kept salt, sugar, rice, jewelry, and money in an old trunk; now I keep brochures, postal stamps, and matchboxes.

Do you have a method for finding old items?
I talk to people around me and look at photographs.

If you had to give something from your collection to your boyfriend, what would you choose?
I would probably give a brochure from a program we attended together along with a letter expressing my feelings.