We all remember the famous song ‘kabutar ja ja’ that revolved around a love letter. Social media and other resources have swept off traditional methods of communication but as said, ‘history always repeats itself.’ A couple of youngsters are trying to revive this trend.
Ankit Anubhav and his friends realized that people still use letters for igniting emotions and rekindling bonds. He saw that handwritten letters are nostalgic and speaks to the reader like nothing else does. Thus, Ankit started his own firm that focussed on handwritten letters for sending it to the near and dear ones.
With a few friends, in 2016, Ankit launched his start-up The Indian Handwritten Corporation. In an exclusive talk with KenFolios, Ankit said, “The times of handwritten letters have become a part of history and with the advent of social media, the words are cropped and sent in short forms while communicating. But people still acknowledge that the belongingness and closeness that handwritten letters have is missing in this generation. This is why we started our on blog of handwritten messages.”
When Ankit was in boarding school, he wrote a letter every Saturday for his parents. He loved writing his heart and mind on a piece of paper. Similar was the joy in receiving one. It was not just a nostalgic memory but also a memento that could be preserved for ages without perishing.
Ankit says, “My friends and I used to work in an IT company. When we three met during vacations, we used to wonder what could be done in this era of digitalisation that could touch the hearts of people; that could translate their emotions to words. All three of us were used to writing letters since childhood so we decided why not start a blogging site where we could exchange emotions by letters. We started the website as a hobby, but now it has emerged as a successful business.”
In 2015, they started their blog and mentioned, “If anyone wants to send a handwritten letter, we will do it for you and post it on specified address.” The starting was good and just within a week’s time they received 140 requests. People wanted to know in which language they wrote, how many days it would take for those letters to reach the address, and what would be the paper quality. This queries helped them boost their game and go strong even in the time of Whatsapp and Facebook.
“Response from people helped us boost our confidence. We researched more on the subject for next six to seven months. In 2016, we launched our firm. Now, we get more than 100 letters requests everyday from people who want to express their feelings to their loved ones. Out of these 100 letters, 70 are solely love letter requests.”
Many-a-times, these requests are from lovers who want a letter to be written for their girlfriends but they do not give out the address. In these situations, Ankit’s team has difficulty arranging address of the girl and posting those letters. Maximum requests are to write love letters and then there are appeals to the prime minister on various issues.
If the client gives them just the topic of letter and the subject to whom the letter has to be sent, Ankit charges them Rs 2.5 per word. However, when client sends elaborated letters they are charged Rs 1 per word as the available content has to be written manually.
Not every request they have is to write a personal letter. Sometimes, they have to write letters to the customers by companies. The best part is despite writing the letter the entire information of the sender is kept confidential.
Ankit says, “If we believe in our dreams and persistently walk towards it in a positive manner there will be stages of hiccups but not failure. Hardwork is the key and no goal can be realised if we sit watching the face of fate.”
His team is spread all across the globe and writes letters in many languages. There is also an option to write letters in regional languages. The youth, like Ankit and his team, still know how to translate emotions into words and are taking a stride towards bringing back the lost connection between people.
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