India, May 9 -- Many have hobbies. Some have obsessions. What Selim Khandakar feels is a pure, unbridled desire for objects.

Just before a cyclone hit his mud house in Kelepara village in the Hooghly district of West Bengal in 2021, Khandakar spent hours checking on his collection, tucking hundreds of things - perfume bottles, transistor radios, gas stoves, toy cars, pens, plastic dolls, lighters, bead necklaces, miniature paintings, old newspapers, letters, cigarette boxes, albums of stamps and coins - into crevices and corners, desperate to keep them safe. (Most did survive the storm.)

He has amassed over 12,000 items over 50 years. Some (broken crockery and coins) date to the Mughal era. Others (ticket stubs and stamps) are from a fe...