Oshomoyer Daak: Reviving the charm of writing letters

With the world moving forward with digitisation at mind-boggling internet speed, the appeal of an older era is fading away. Old-fashioned hobbies include writing a letter to a loved one and having it delivered in a yellow envelope by a bicycle postman. This allure of the bygone era has taken a backseat, with text messages or e-mails being the most favoured means of communication.

KrayonMag, a social storytelling platform empowering society by amplifying voices regarding social injustice, norms, and in-built stereotypes, successfully organised a handwritten letter festival, "Oshomoyer Daak", powered by Daraz.

This one-of-a-kind event, which is particularly relevant in today's setting, was open to public and took place at Bishwo Shahitto Kendro for three days from 19 October to 21 October, 2022. The idea for "Oshomoyer Daak" and KrayonMag's letter festival came from the fact that people no longer write letters by hand. There were several suggested topics from KrayonMag for the letters, some of which were related to the SDG goals, such as "Gender equality, mental health, climate change, education system, and peace not war."

Photo: Krayon Mag

Finally, there was an open letter writing category called "Your Dream," in which authors could write letters about their dreams, parents, family members, favourite city, favourite author, or a fictional character. These letters could be sent to a loved one, a relative, a friend far away, or a character from a story. Participants were free to write about any beloved object or character from literature or movies.

Aroma Dutta, MP, was the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony. Among the notable guests were Salma Adil, MJF, Founder, Salma Adil Foundation, CFO and ED, Top of Mind, and Poet and Author Bhaskar Chowdhury. The panel guests included Azra Mahmood, a well-known media figure; Manizey Ibrahim, author of the upcoming debut novel "Aries: The Beginning," and Director of Legal Affairs at Ibrahim Securities Limited; and Ahsan Bhuiyan, Barrister-at-law and founder of the Poribirton Kori Foundation, were among the panel guests.

Photo: Krayon Mag

KrayonMag's founder and CEO, Tanziral Dilshad Ditan, praised everyone for participating in the letter festival without being asked. She added, " Handwritten letter is such a medium where all of our thoughts and unspoken words can be expressed in a complete way. It can also contain some important statement or opinion. Nevertheless, at this fast-paced time of technological advancements, the practice of writing letters has become almost obsolete. From this perspective, Krayon Mag has arranged this hand-written letter festival 'Oshomoyer Dak'. Through this festivity, we wish to bring back the eternal appeal of hand written letters."

Everyone's letters to Krayon Mag were displayed in a letter exhibition on this occasion. KrayonMag will compile these letters into a book for the upcoming 2023 book fair.