In the time of dry, ruthless straightforward e-mails or text messaging with emotionless slang, abbreviated words and emojis, handwritten letters have been lost somewhere. But an administrative officer in Rajasthan is trying to revive the good old habit of letter writing.
Suraj Singh Negi a Rajstthan Administrative Officer with his wife Dr Meena Sirola, a lecturer in Bansthli Vidypeeth organize letter-writing competitions on various subjects and around 7000 people of all age groups are participating in these competitions. What is hearting is that more than half of them are children.
Suraj Singh Negi is currently posted as an additional collector in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan and himself is an author. He was trying to revive the habit of letter writing among school children. ‘We are living in a time when we are losing emotions. We are connected but the warmth of relations is missing and I feel letter writing was the best way to keep the closeness with your dear ones so we were trying to make children habitual of letter writing,’ said Negi.
And then in 2018, he started the campaign called Paati Apnon Ko Negi said.‘ I was posted in the Sarvar block of Ajmer then. On Valentine's day, I just appealed to people to write a letter to their mother with the title ‘Maan Tum Kaisi Ho (How are you mother) and I was surprised that 500 people of all age groups sent their letters to me. I realized that people are still interested in letter writing and to motivate others also we started this campaign,’
Around 7000 people of all age groups from more than, 20 states and 4-5 countries have joined this campaign. Negi and his wife organized competitions on various subjects like a letter to the teacher, a letter to the father, a letter to nature and so on and motivate people to write on the subject. The letter has to be handwritten.
The ongoing competition is Ek Paati Dakiye Ke Naam (a letter to the postman).
All participants get certificates and selected letters get published in book form. Negi said that we have published 7 books of these letters till now and it is good that school-going children are actively participating in this. ‘These Diwali, children sent postcards to their relatives instead of greeting cards and Whatsapp messages and the response was overwhelming,’ said Negi.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
