Man of many letters

Though modern-day gazettes appear to have literally robbed Generation X of the joy of writing letters to their near and dear ones, Chandra Prakash Gandhi of Jaipur has been keeping the art of letter-writing alive. Chandra Prakash claims that he has scribbled over 58,000 letters in the past two decades. Residing in Jaipur’s Raja Park locality, he writes extensively to people, irrespective of whether he is close to them or not.

Sexagenarian Chandra Prakash believes that a hand-written message carries a personal touch. Gandhi says: "I write letters so that people feel good and could be happy. Previously, I use to present flowers and they felt very happy. But now I write letters so that their families also feel happy. When I write letters, it also makes me feel great by making people happy." For him, a pastime has turned into a passion. Chandra Prakash has always preferred to write in a carefree manner.

Every day, Gandhi writes around eight to 10 letters, wishing people on their birthdays or an anniversaries and on festivals.

They range from ‘save electricity’, ‘conserve petrol’ and ‘plant more trees’ to ‘reserve clean and green environment’.

These messages could be sent to anyone — people known to him, or to public figures, or even complete strangers.

The letters leave an impact. Completely unknown people reply and invite Chandra Prakash for a subsequent birthday or anniversary celebration hosted by them.

Chandra Prakash’s endeavour is backed by his family, particularly his daughter. She helps him in maintaining his data bank of addresses, and adds new contacts with relevant details of birth dates. Chandra Prakash’s daughter Anju says: "I have no problem about the hobby of my father and I help him in finding the names and addresses of the people whom he desires to wish on some occasion." — ANI