A short while after moving to the New York city, 22 year old Hannah Brencher started writing letters to strangers she would see on a train and other public places. She would leave them on a car-wiper, on a door step etc. And it became a movement called More Love Letters.
Writing is an art, letter-writing is an archaic art, and writing letters to strangers could be performance-art. Steve Jobs left little notes and letters to his family tucked in his clothes and other places.
This holiday-season, think of taking this up. One can combine various things with it – calligraphy and other forms of visual-arts, charity-giving and anything that’s relevant.
In the modern tweet / SMS / What’sApp world, a step-by-step guide on ‘how to write a love-letter to a stranger’ may not be very out of place!
1. What to write?
Isn’t it easy to strike a conversation with a complete stranger sitting in the adjacent-seat 
on a long haul flight? If that’s daunting then pick up any greeting-card or a small photocopy of some art-work. The art work of the first step of the Sun Salutation Yoga was made by a Hollywood actor / artist who stayed at AZIMVTH Ashram for a month. Write a thoughtful message on it.
2. Charity
Your autograph on a small piece of paper will be much welcomed by any charity. Especially if the small piece of paper is a bank-cheque! In return of the nice gesture, you will be given a receipt by your favourite charity. You may ask the receipt to be made in the name of the stranger to whom you are writing a letter. This image shows a collection of scores of payment-receipts that were given to
AZIMVTH Ashram during December 2017 by a charity called ‘Shri Ganga Sabha (Registered) Haridwar’ founded in the year 1916 by Bharat Ratna Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya.
3. Own branding
One made add individual branding to it.
4. Letter
If you want to write more, that’s just great. At the local stationary shop it is still possible to buy light weight paper-sheets meant for those who want to send letters overseas. Remember pen-friend days?
5. Set
So, the complete set looks like this.
Whom to write?
Anybody! For example, one may choose to write to any of these year-end requests at Hannah’s website
A love-letter to myself!
Hey, why not write a love-letter to yourself? An autobiography, a diary, a morning-page, a memoir – call it anything – is a form of love-letter!
One may also join in a collaborative writing project ‘Pilgrims of the Inner Worlds’.
More on Creative Writing
AZIMVTH are involved with a variety of projects based on creative-writing. Following weblinks contain more information.
AZIMVTH Ashram 