Letters for your heart

Even before we started writing essays and stories, there was the letter, lovingly written and posted after annoying your mother for the correct address.

Reminding dad about the depleting reserve of stamps, brown envelops and postcards was a routine; hunting for the coolest recycled paper stationery to write in became an adventure. We took so much delight in discovering new pen  pals to write to — former teachers, that cool grand-uncle, your best friend… then why have we stopped?

Yesterday, Letter Earthlings, an initiative by The Goodwill Tribe was held at Semmozhi Poonga. The participants may have been a small, cosy number, but they are growing steadily. TGT, an international organisation, has members in Sri Lanka, Dubai, Sydney, and other cities in India like Bengaluru and Pune. The letter-writing event is just one of the many initiatives they do for the community, says Shashi Kiran who founded the Chennai chapter of the NGO six months ago along with Thanga swathi Aru mugam and Mohammed Osama.

“Letter Earthlings was actually the brainchild of Nivendra, another member of TGT based out of Sri Lanka, who wanted to bring back the art of letter-writing for a bigger purpose and to improve human connection,” says Shashi. Held all over the world, the sessions in Chennai are held every month. And who do they write to? “We have a Google documents form published on our Facebook page. We invite requests for letters to that page from people all over the world. It could be for anyone — a family member who’s going through a rough patch or a friend,” he adds.

“At the session, we go through the request and the participants can pick one that they can relate to. It’s written anonymously and once we sort through the letters, we post them. Sometimes, the people in the letters write back,” Shashi smiles, recalling the time they wrote letters of encouragement and support to a person diagnosed with cancer.

Two weeks later, they received a reply thanking them for the kind act. “I am a social worker and being involved in Letter Earthlings as helped me in my counseling sessions,” says Swathi. “I am not very expressive in real-life, and writing letters is a way for me to do that. We become kinder and more empathetic as well,” she adds. Since they started, they have seen a lot of youngsters joining them and reaching out to schools is also an idea they will consider, Swathi explains.

While the next session of Letter Earthling is yet to be announced, The Goodwill tribe, Chennai will be organising a Kindness Confetti Drive on July 30.