Snail mail in the era of WhatsApp

Karnataka has the largest community of postcrossers in India. They send postcards across the globe as a hobby

Postcrosser Preetha Lakshman says that she has grown fond of postboxes. This one in Vyalikaval is her favourite. She has been walking by it since her school days.

The first card that Anu Gummaraju received, from a woman called Teresa in the US.

PeeVee is fascinated by lighthouses and often requests fro card that feature them. This is one from his collection featuring the Hercules Tower in Spain. It's the oldest living lighthouse in the world.

In today’s digital world, it may come as a surprise to many that there exists a community of people who send postcards to people across the globe as a hobby. Known as postcrossing, it was formalised by Paulo Magalhães in 2005. India has around 12,000 postcrosses, over 7,000 of whom are from Karnataka.

Known in the postcrossing community as PeeVee, is a photographer and owner of a creative agency. He has crossed over 2,000 postcards till date. “I found out about it in 2012 and I was drawn to it because as a school student I used to write and send letters,” he says.

He registered on the postcrossing website out of curiosity. “The website asks you to fill in contact information and a little bio about yourself and gives you five random addresses to send cards to. It also gives your address to five random people,” he explains.

He sent five cards and received three in return but he didn’t find the motivation to continue. “In 2015, I wanted to try again and this time I too got five cards. The thrill of receiving cards became a motivation but I still wasn’t very familiar with the world of stamps and postcards,” he says.

His turning point came when he came across a group of postcrossers at the General Post Office (GPO). “There I met Col Akhil Kumar, he’s been doing this for ages. He’s crossed over 40,000 cards. We built a community and started doing events around this. We even go to schools to introduce this concept to the students,” he explains.

PeeVee says that while he’s sent only 450 cards through the postcrossing website, the concept has spread far and wide and there are several smaller communities that postcross.

Preetha Lakshman, graduate student was introduced to the concept through an initiative called Chitti Exchange by cultural newsletter Alipore Post. “My grandfather was a postmaster so snail mail has always been a fascination. I’ve collected postcards and my sister collects stamps but I never knew of such a community until September last year until a friend and a fellow postcrosser who taught her how to send a postcard,” she says.

While none of the letters she sent through the programme reached she had become hooked.

“I signed up on the Postcrossing website after that and now I’ve sent postcards to around 28 countries and received them from 20 countries,” she says.

Anu Gummaraju, Co-founder and CDO at Tide Learning, says that she had a lot of penpals growing up but it all faded away with the digital revolution. “When I came across postcrossing it felt like a portal back to a time when you could connect with people more deeply.The idea of getting an address from somewhere in the world, putting pen to paper and writing down a message for this person and then receiving something from them really interested me, ” she says.

She started in mid 2019 but as she was receiving her first batch of cards, Covid hit.

“There was a damper for around four months, but everything was back on track by August 2020,” she says.

What keeps you hooked?

“It allows you to connect with people that you’d have no way of knowing otherwise and through them you learn about places and cultures you wouldn’t even find if you googled,” says PeeVee.

He recalls one such story where he read about an abandoned lighthouse in Denmark and when he got the address from Denmark, he asked the person about it on a whim. “I didn’t know if she lived next to the lighthouse or even if she knew about it, but she wrote back telling me more about the lighthouse and it’s restoration efforts. It was such a great learning experience,” he says.

For Preetha the idea of being in one place and receiving cards from all over the world is intriguing. “To know that a certain card has travelled such distances for you is a special feeling,” she says. She hopes to do this for a long time. “While it’s not a number or goal-oriented hobby, I do hope to send and receive cards from every country,” she says.

PeeVee adds that it teaches you patience but for something that requires you to wait it’s very addicting. “Seeing me, my daughter was inspired to get into it two years back. Now she’s eight years old and has crossed 150 cards,” says PeeVee.

Anu too finds it addicting. “I end up checking the mailbox everyday. The feeling of finding a card is very thrilling. There is a sense of looking forward to something unexpected. With digital, it’s immediate and you know what to expect. Here every card is a surprise and it’s always new,” she says.

Preetha says because it’s so addictive it can become expensive. “I started off with the 50 paise yellow card but unique postcards have their own charm and they're more costly. Trips to the philately shops too end up with me spending a lot,” she says.

She adds that it can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it.

Anu sends around 50 to 70 cards a month but says that the hobby is more reasonable in India compared to other countries. “Credit for that goes to the postal services. It costs a maximum of Rs 15 to send a postcard anywhere in the world,” she says.

In February, Postcrossing.com reached the goal of 60 million postcards crossed. “That’s just through one platform, the actual number is much higher. It’s a message to people who say postcards and snail mail is dead,” says PeeVee.

Building connections
While postcrossing is about sending and receiving one postcard to a person, many have created connections through this medium. “I have around 60 penpals across the globe. One of whom I’ve exchanged over 50 cards with. I have a diary where I note down when and what I sent to them so the postcards don’t get repeated,” Peevee says.

Anu also has around eight penpals. “While we’re also connected on social media we don’t engage in long conversations online. The charm is keeping it to the written word. It becomes that much more interesting to sit and write what happened,” she says.

Postcards Ville
Anu Gummaraju, Co-founder at Tide Learning says that one of the difficulties postcrossers face is a lack of locally available postcards. “It’s difficult finding unique good quality ones that are also nominally priced,” she says.

This is something that Peevee has also observed. “People don’t see a business opportunity because they think postcards are dying out. But those in the community will tell you that there is a clear lack,” he says.

He took matters into his own hands last June and started Postcards Ville. “I run a creative agency and we were free during the lockdown so we thought why not,” he says. In the last eight months, the platform has sold over 50,000 cards.

Social media and snail mail
Most postcrossers now have social media accounts revolving around their hobby. It allows them to connect to more people and find others in the community. “Many of my friends have started postcrossing after coming across my page,” says Peevee.

You can find the postcrossers featured in this story on Instagram - @postcardtravelsfromblore, @myscribblesoncards and @postcrosserpeevee