Daakroom, an organization reviving and promoting the art of letter writing, with support from India Post and the Ministry of Culture and Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, held its letter writing carnival on December 4, 2022 at Gandhi Darshan (Raj Ghat), New Delhi. The day-long event saw an impressive footfall of over 8,000 people, who didn’t just explore the art of writing in the digital era but ensured multiple letters and postcards were posted by the end of day.
People from different walks of life including students, teachers, writing enthusiasts, artists, families and many more turned up to grace the event and enjoy an array of activities planned for the day. The day filled with excitement also boasted many interesting stalls such as postcard writing, writing to the army, post crossing, exciting stationery, engaging demos from the postal department, like a mini post office, a philately exhibit, and a real postman visiting the carnival to clear the post box and carry the letters to its recipients.
“India Post was happy to join at Daakroom and bring postal services to youngsters amidst a happy, enjoyable carnival environment. We had set up counters for Speed Post, Registry, MyStamp, Philatelic articles and more, in the form of a mini post office itself, so that people could experience postal services in a young environment. Letters have come to be known as something of the past, which is not true. They are as impactful as ever, even today. India Post also exhibited a whole new world of stamps to invite the youngsters to the National Philatelic Exhibition, AMRITPEX-2023 to in Feb 2023,” said Manju Kumar, Chief Post Master General, Delhi Circle. Vijay Goel, former union minister, inaugurated the carnival.
“Looking at the huge and excited crowd today, we are positive that letter writing will only increase in the times to come and are thankful that our partners not just trusted us but also came forward and supported us in a big way,” said Shivani Mehta & Harnehmat Kaur, Co-founders & Organizers, Daakroom.
The fair hosted competitions and workshops around writing and post. It also had music, theatre, dance, shopping, food and interactive demos from the Postal Department. Not just this, there were avenues for people to unleash their creative side and try their hands at Philately, Calligraphy, Brush Lettering, Stationery design with traditional art forms, Handwriting improvement, Origami and more. The evening ended on a light note with a stand-up comedy performance by the charming Sejal Bhat.
“We are very happy to know that an initiative like Daakroom is trying to revive handwritten communication – such a rich part of our history and culture. Under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, we are doing activities in the field of health and wellness for people. Digital detoxification is the need of the hour and such initiatives will inspire people to pick pen and paper for writing letters as powerful tool of communication and learning,” shared Uma Nanduri, Joint secretary, Ministry of Culture.
Daakroom has plans to take the carnival to 10 major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Calcutta etc. in India by 2030.
