Letters Of Love

Have you ever thought of making a difference here in this world with your life? Yes, I have… and it’s always my deepest desire. But there’s always a difference between dreaming and actually taking an effort and doing it. 

When we all empathize about the terrible things that’s happening round us, beautiful people like Pooja Pradeep just takes that extra step to ensure that something positive is been directed towards the affected people. And here she is doing her bit and letting others to be a part of that and making that something huge for those who receive them.

More than 50% of Syrian refugees are children. The youngest are confused and scared by their experiences, lacking the sense of safety and home they need. The older children are forced to grow up too fast, finding work and taking care of their family in desperate circumstances. They don’t even know why they have to go through all this. They don’t have anyone to comfort, say a word of encouragement or express any emotion of love and here comes Letters of Love. I came to know about this beautiful initiative from Roshan’s blog and what more reason one need to look into something a friend believes in. Letters of Love is an initiative to collect smiles and love from across the world and translate it to Arabic and send to the little ones in Syria. 

 Pooja with the postcards :)

The idea is to deliver all these post cards via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the children across various refugee camps by NEW YEAR 2015. So you just have to search for that happiest picture of yours, write and write a happy positive note with loads of love and inbox it to Letters of Love. And they’ll convert it to postcard with a handwritten note by mid-December.

The images could be anything positive -

•         Your best smile
•         Blowing a kiss
•         You and your friends
•         You with your pets
•         You holding flowers
•         Words - cheery and feel good in tone, ideally, rather than taking on a sympathetic voice.

Things to avoid –

•         Selfies (they may get cropped while converting into post card format)
•       Images with food or materialistic goods (it may hit a raw nerve for a child who has lost everything)
•         Obscene gestures. 

Christmas is always the season of celebrations and hope. Let’s celebrate this December by letting the love and hope and warmth spread across borders to those who need them the most.

Hope you’ll join in too. 

A Snippet from the Past ...

5 Aug 2009

It’s almost two in the morning. The air is so warm that the comforter was suffocating me. I’ve been trying to sleep for hours, but despite the tiredness sleep fails me yet another night. Sleep hasn’t visited me in days and how I hate these long nights. I hate this insomnia. Sleep is a getaway from everything everyone and reality. I don’t feel like staying back when I’m awake, which I’m for days now. I just feel like running away, to that far away island in the north or go road trekking in some strange country or in a café with cups and cups of coffee writing my heart out in the midst of foreign language or volunteering in a village in some under developed country. These were plans in my to-do-list for years. But somehow along the road the to-do-list of living life turned to just surviving. I never understood myself. One minute I’ll be sipping life as if it’s the sweetest nectar I have never tasted and the other moment I’ll be in this deep dark pitch screaming silently to be unseen and unknown. But till when …  

Liza turned to the next page and to the other but to find them all blank.