On World Postcard Day at this time, meet the ladies who transcend WhatsApp chats and Insta DMs and haven’t given up on this quaint mode of communication
When most individuals had been bored with social distancing through the lockdown, Disha Shah sat for lengthy hours writing postcards to her family members. “I realised that almost all of them didn’t even know the place the closest put up workplaces are. That’s once I obtained the concept to revive the tradition of sending postcards,” says the Ahmedabad-based fanatic, who not too long ago began writepostcard.com, a service that sends personalised and curated postcards on behalf of people.
In July, Rohini Kejriwal, founding father of the Alipore Publish, began off a pen pal programme. “Chitthi Alternate happened when my intern, Tanishka Pandey, was eager to work on a community-based exercise to assist folks join with strangers and forge new friendships. We maintain it easy: these crammed in a Google Kind, with an intuitive pairing achieved by me,” says Kejriwal, who has now linked virtually 1,500 pen buddies (750 pairs) throughout India and the world.
From the writepostcard assortment by Disha Shah
Not only a pastime
Whereas males like Vishnu Ravishankar (@zoro_pc), Ludhiana-based Pulkit Kochhar (@swap_it_india), and Coimbatore-based Viknesh Kumar (@vikki56pc) do actively contribute to the group, girls appear to be a dominant presence within the postcard group. Even earlier than the pandemic, Bengaluru-based Anupama Gummaraju has been writing postcards to folks internationally for greater than a 12 months now. “Nonetheless temporary the interplay could also be [because of the limited space], I’ve had glimpses of individuals’s lives that actually drive dwelling the purpose that we’re all simply people navigating this world as greatest as we are able to,” says the co-owner of an academic initiative, Tide Studying.
Each adults and youngsters can be taught quite a bit concerning the world by means of postcards, she says. “Kindergarten and first grade schoolteachers within the UK and the US perform tasks the place they obtain postcards from completely different international locations. Dad and mom who home-school their youngsters usually swap postcards to coach their youngsters about historical past, geography, cultures, meals, and habits from all over the world,” Gummaraju explains, including, “I’m 48 now — it’s by no means too late to start out.”
Onam Women by S Padma Malini. @theplainpaperspage on Instagram
An timeless religion
Within the final two years, Pune-based Anushka Sawarkar (@anushka.postcards) has exchanged greater than 1,500 postcards with folks from virtually 80 international locations. Aside from assembly a number of of her pen buddies in actual life, she has additionally obtained to know her native postal employees. “I’ve an awesome rapport with them and so they completely love seeing the completely different postcards I obtain from all over the world,” she says. For Chennai-based artist S Padma Malini, postcards are her canvas. The 38-year-old artist took time through the lockdown to create a social media web page devoted to her work (@theplainpaperspage on Instagram). “MF Husain used to journey with 100 postcards to attract his paintings. The day I obtained to be taught this, I used to be impressed to do the identical,” says Malini.
Mumbai-based medical scholar, Bhumika Sunil Israni, who has been sending and receiving snail mail for the previous two and a half years says that the lockdown was tougher with no postcards to stay up for. “An empty mailbox did make me really feel unhappy, however then I made a decision to reread those I already had. In contrast to emails or telephone messages, this was like a journey within the higher previous. The postcards began pouring in from June onwards, when postal providers resumed,” she says. Israni now is aware of folks residing in additional than 100 international locations. “My household says that wherever I find yourself on the earth, I’ll at all times have somebody to shelter me,” she concludes with fun.
Artwork in your mail
These artists create artwork on postcards and share it on Instagram.
Deepti Ahluwalia Sinha – @purplepirateco
Gurgaon-based Deepti Ahluwalia Sinha, a mom of 1, says that her postcards are an ode to India Publish employees, who’ve labored relentlessly through the pandemic to make sure that the mail reaches their dwelling. @purplepirateco on Instagram
Shikha Nambiar – @chicabeingme
Pune-based Shikha Nambiar, 34, says, “The truth that a bit piece of paper travels so many miles to achieve my mailbox is simply fascinating.” @chicabeingme on Instagram
Kodhai Narayanan – @artbykodhai
Bengaluru-based Kodhai Narayanan, 20, says, “Capturing fleeting moments and locations in a postcard is like giving a reminiscence a bodily type, in order that it may be transported to anybody in any a part of the world.” @artbykodhai on Instagram
Shuruti Vengatesh – @make.mail
When Coimbatore-based Shuruti Vengatesh obtained playing cards from her grandfather on her birthdays, she was over the moon. “That’s the place my love for writing letters and postcards comes from,” she says. @make.mail on Instagram.
Tulika Saxena – embroideredpostcards
Tulika Saxena, who’s at the moment finding out textile design from NID, says, “I used to be at dwelling in Varanasi, and it was through the lockdown that I noticed my grandfather’s postcard assortment. I wished to reinvent the yellow playing cards into one thing soothing (therefore embroidery) and add visuals of native bushes and flowers that remind us of dwelling.” @embroideredpostcards on Instagram.
