'How are you Mahatma Gandhi?'

If you want to write a letter to Mahatma Gandhi, then here is your chance. At the Metro Boulevard on Mahatma Gandhi road, Bengaluru, one will now see a post box in which anyone could drop in a letter to Gandhiji.

The initiative known as Letter to Gandhi is part of the Gandhi Jayanti celebrations. The initiative which went live two days ago has already seen 619 letters till date. Most of the letters have been written by youngsters and school children. One can walk up to the post box and drop in a letter.

The contents of the letters are pretty interesting.

Some have dropped in a post card asking, “How are you Mahatma Gandhi?”

There are others who have asked questions about his life which include why he undertook the Dandi March. There are also letters which ask him about the corruption that prevailed during his times and how he would compare it with the existing day.

There are also a good number of post cards that have been dropped into the box wishing him on his birthday.

This is an initiative by the Rangoli Metro Art Centre Surekha. They say that the intention is to encourage writing as Gandhi himself used to write a lot.

“There is too much email culture and we thought it would be a good way of encouraging writing and also using the postal services,” said an organiser.

While this initiative encourages writing and also getting to know the father of the nation, it is also aimed at educating the people about the postal system.

This initiative which was started with the help of the General Post Office also provides stamps near the post box. The organisers say that anyone could buy stamps and have his face or any other illustration printed on them. Interestingly, these will not just be dummy stamps. They are very much functional too.