Kolkata: With an intention to revive the art of letter writing among generation Y, the Department of Posts is hosting a national level letter writing campaign titled 'Dhai Akhar'. The best letters will be awarded by the postal department.
"The present generation is interested in text messages and emails. Business letters are still on but personal letters have drastically gone down. People from the rural areas still continue to write personal letters but the city has completely forgotten to write them. The effect is reflected in their writing. School teachers often tell me that students use short forms of text messages while writing spellings," a senior official of the Bengal circle said. "It is a sincere effort on our part to revive a lost form of literature," said Arundhaty Ghosh, chief Post Master General (West Bengal circle).
The theme of the Dhai Akhar Letter Writing Campaign will be: "Letter to my Motherland" inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's "Amar Desher Mati". The campaign has already been launched and the last date for posting letters under this campaign is September 30.
The letter can be written in English/Hindi/ or Local Language. "The categories will be in two levels, one up to 18 years of age and another above 18 years, in both inland and envelope forms. The three best entries in both forms will be awarded at the national level and also at the circle level. The prize-winning letters will be published in important newspapers," a senior official of the postal department said. At the national level, the first, second and third prize winners will get respectively Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 and at the circle level, the first, second and third prize winners will receive Rs 25,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000. In each group, submissions are allowed in two categories — inland letter card category and the envelope category. The country has 22 circles. The department will start campaigning at different institutions across the state to apprise the students of this initiative soon. It may be mentioned that last year the students from the city's suburbs have responded much more to the campaign in comparison to their counterparts in Kolkata.