CHENNAI: When was the last time you wrote a letter? As in, write a letter using a pen and paper? In the modern age of instant messaging, letter writing is a dying art. That’s why members of the Letter Earthlings hold monthly meetings and write letters to strangers based on the requests they recieve on their social media page.
Letter Earthlings is a 3-month old group on Facebook that was started by Nivendra Uduman, an alumnus of Christ University, Bengaluru, to create a positive change in society and to revive the art of writing letters. “We receive requests from friends of people who are going through a rough patch. Or it could be that they want to wish someone on a special occasion or tell someone how awesome they are. The request can be about anything,” explained Shashi Kiran, one of the members.
Feel like pouring your heart out to someone? Then send your requests through a google form. Members gather these requests and meet once a month to reply to these letters. They either mail them or courier the letters to the receivers for whom these people are strangers.
Shashi explains that when you write letters to random people, you are not just making them happy but also become aware of issues or problems you never thought existed. “You feel satisfied because you have made a stranger smile,” he says.
“Suppose someone is going through depression. They experience loneliness and they think that people do not like them. When we write letters to them, they feel like someone somewhere cares about them and likes them for who they are,” said Thangaswathi, another member of the group.
The group gets letters about a variety of situations. Some letters need to be sent soon. For example, the letter could be addressed to someone who is suicidal or to someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer. “We write to them immediately to give them hope and encourage them to win against all the adversities,” adds Thangaswathi. “In most cases of mental illness, the problem is that people think they’re alone. So when they read about someone who has gone through the same problem and has survived it, it gives them hope and encouragement.”
(For details, visit their page on Facebook)
