On February 17, 2004 The Statesman published a story titled 'Man of letters wants to script world peace' where Rakhi Chakraborty writes about my hobby of writing letters to heads of state from across the globe. Below is the text of the article originally published here.
Feb. 16. — He could well be called a “man of letters”. Nineteen-year-old Namit Agarwal, a first-year BCom student of Bhowanipore Gujarati Education Society, has collected about 40 letters from dignitaries and heads of state from across the globe.
Namit boasts of letters from Pakistan prime minister Mr Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Australian premier Mr John Howard, Egyptian president Mr Hosni Mubarak, Mr Nelson Mandela as well as former Indian president Mr KR Narayanan and prime minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.
In a letter, Mr Jamali wrote to him, “The times of achieving national glory through war are over. Modern war is not a conflict between armies only; entire peoples of the battling countries are involved and suffer infinite misery, destruction and a halt to progress and all that is good in life (sic).”
“After I wrote to Mr Jamali, there was an enquiry from an intelligence agency at my house. But when the officer heard the details, he praised me,” said Namit.
As a class VIII student of St Thomas Church School, he wanted to take up an unusual hobby. So, in 1998, he decided to shoot off a letter to Ms Cherie Blair, wife of the British premier Mr Tony Blair. He requested for her autograph and photograph. “I did not have her address. So, I just wrote “London, UK”, and sent it off,” he said. About a month later, he received a reply from her.
Overjoyed at his success, he wrote to 53 persons across the world in a week. “I did not receive any reply. Then a month later, I got a letter from Mr Mandela with 500 stamps of South Africa, magazines, and a book,” he said.
His impressive collection of letters from dignitaries has boosted his confidence and now he wishes to take up world peace as a cause. “I want to spread the message of peace all over the world. Besides, I also want to collect peace messages from students,” said Namit.
Comments
Post a Comment