India Post's West Bengal circle receives overwhelming response to Dhai Akhar

Kolkata: The West Bengal circle of India Post has received excellent response as part of its Dhai Akhar (letter writing) campaign that was rolled out by the postal department in the country from mid-July with the intention to revive the art of letter writing, particularly among Generation Y. The campaign by India Post is coming to an end on Independence Day.

"We are yet to finish the count of the letters from other parts of the state but there have been over 10,000 entries from Kolkata. The campaign covered as many as 30 schools in Kolkata where students penned down letters on the theme "Dear Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi), you inspire me". The campaign has been rolled out by some head post offices in the state," said Arundhaty Ghosh, chief Post Master General, West Bengal.

The postal department has put up advertisements regarding the campaign and interested people had to post the letters in a specially designated letter box.

Text messages and emails have sounded the knell for letter writing. "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. It is a sincere effort on our part to revive a lost form of literature," Ghosh said.

Some leading schools in the city that participated in the campaign include Kendriya Vidyalaya Ballygunge, Behala High School, Loreto Dharmatala, Patha Bhavan, Appejay School etc. "If we go across the letters of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Sister Nivedita, Sri Aurobindo and many others, we will be aware of its literary and historic value as well," a senior postal department official said.

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 in the circle level. Writers of these letters will be awarded in a function in Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on October 2, 2017. The country has 22 circles. The prize-winning letters will be published in important newspapers.

Each circle will display 10 best letters in each category in a special philately exhibition that will be organised during Gandhi Jayanti in circle headquarters.