One day, at Bhavan – Bangalore Press School
74 Picture postcards
16 Yellow Postcards
12 Envelopes
9 Inland Letters
Countless Smiles, through the day,
and on their way.
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On Tuesday, the last day of June, the Battees team stepped into its much anticipated School Projects with the first activity – a simple Letter Writing day at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan-Bangalore Press School, in Chamraj Pet, Bangalore.
A day before the activity, the team met 100 students from the Middle School (classes 6th, 7th and 8th), to enter the assembly hall with a small little gimmick –
“Roll no. 17 from class 7th, I have a letter for you!”
About a dozen or two of letters with sweet/interesting/funny messages (that the team painstakingly wrote for students the night before!) thus got distributed among random students. Excited murmurs quickly spread across the room, before we silenced them with a question,
“How many of you have ever written a letter?”
We were not surprised to know that only a small fraction of the kids had ever written, while a fraction higher had received one, but had only responded with a phone call. This was followed by an interactive introduction to what post and India Post is, how letters travel, who a postman is, and what the magical qualities of a stamp are! The last question we asked before leaving on Monday was,
“How many of you would like to write a letter tomorrow?”
Much to our joy, every student seemed excited, with their hand reaching the ceiling! We briefed them to get addresses, and think of what to write before coming the next day.
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On the day of the activity, we reached with an assortment of postal stationery. We had an hour at our disposal, and having been out of school for a fair bit of time, we were pretty much dreading our interaction with the students (and we weren’t completely disappointed, for, well, we did pass a rather lingering moment where one of us almost lost their voice, and the other, their sanity)!
We began by introducing the students to the four kinds of writing media – postcards (yellow and picture), inland letters and envelope enclosed letters. We told them briefly about how to write the address and where to stick the stamps, stressing once again on our favourite part – to remember to lick and stick them!
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Some put their most creative foot forward..
..While others chose to honour their mother tongue.
Some were sweet admirations,
And some, simply beautiful messages (with utmost neatness, not to mention!)
A bunch of letters also went to the Prime Minister (after we found them the address they were keen to have!); some admirations, some requests, some invitations to the school.
And before we knew it, even the teachers picked their pens!
One of the most beautiful, most honest letters we have ever seen came from this thirteen year old writing to his family.
“Ashu bhaiya, kya aap ko yaad hai ki hum kaise ladte thay? Mujhe un ladaaiyon ki bahut yaad aati hai.”
(Ashu bhaiya, do you remember how we used to fight? I fondly remember our fights!)
“Mujhe Shaanu didi aur mere pyaare bhateejey ki bahut yaad aati hai. Please mere liye unki ek photo bhej dijiyega.”
(I miss Shaanu didi and my dear nephew very much. Please send me a photo of them.)
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Once the letters were written, the students tried out the magical technique of licking the stamps to stick it. (The first volunteer did receive some rooting for this!)
And once again, our Little Red Battees Postbox had to do the job of lending the experience of slipping the letter inside the black slit. The reluctance to let go was clear when the students quickly took once last look at their letters before letting them disappear into the safe hands of India Post. We hope all their post reaches its destination really soon!
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The writing activity was followed by an engrossing presentation by the Philately Counsellor from the Bangalore GPO, which ended in generating a lot of interest among students, as well as curiosity on how to get stamps. We hope many a student takes up the beautiful hobby of collecting stamps.
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The activity would not have been possible without the keen participation of and support from the teachers and the Principal of BBP School, as well as from the members of the Bangalore Press. The Indian Postal Department has also been immensely supportive of the idea, and has been guiding the project in multiple ways.
This being only the first of many school activities to come, we look forward to learning on the go; learning how to deal with students and learning how to learn from the students, learning how to teach them better, and learning how to make a small impact in a big world, to inculcate a lost, yet invaluable habit.
Writefully yours,
Battees.
