From a friend with love

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Thanks to emails and text messages, the wait at the mailbox and the anticipated joy of letters are fading from memory. The excitement of receiving a postcard is almost forgotten. But a new trend in letter-writing has youngsters signing up for ‘Postcrossing’, a website that allows real postcards to enter your ‘mailbox’.
Send a postcard anywhere across the world and you’re guaranteed to get one back. Postcrossing has caught the imagination of many teenagers. Ask them why and pat comes the answer: It’s not digital! In the present age of superfast technology, the idea of receiving a hard copy greeting card or a postcard has almost become an extinct concept amidst all the emails and SMSes and thus, this new idea of physical evidence has teens mesmerised.
The Postcrossing USP (unique selling point) is that it takes the penfriends format and makes it more creative and interactive. Tech expert Kriuba Shankar says, “Postcrossing reminds me of pen friends. You always get that warm, fuzzy feeling when you receive a mail from a friend in a faraway place like Germany or anywhere across the world .”
“You send a postcard to anyone in the world and you are sure to receive one back from someone out there. Anyone who files their address can start sending across postcards for free, which seems to be a fair deal,” says college student Janvi Sachde.
Says Hussna J., an engineering student, “The best part about this is the get-togethers. Members post venue details on the page or post it on Facebook and the dates are fixed. The next Indian meet-up seems to be in Mumbai around June and I am excited to make new friends,” she smiles.
However, apart from the fun, the downside is the danger in posting one’s address. But engineering student T. Kushal brushes this aside. “Filing your address might be a problem but you get to know so many people from different backgrounds. You get to know more about their culture, their lifestyle and a lot more. And so many people turn up at the meets!”
In the Web world of www.postcrossing.com [2], the final word belongs to Kriuba. Asked if filling in address details is a problem, he says blithely, “All of us are kind-hearted, so nothing can happen.”