postcard magic

As someone who likes to travel on occasion, I love to bring back souvenirs to remind me of the good times from every place I’ve visited. Over the years, I’ve made a laundry list of items to bring back whenever I move to a new place. This list includes fridge magnets, T-shirts with my floor printed in bold, coffee mugs to start my days with fond memories, and shot glasses as cute little accessories for our humble family bar, among local items. Are included. cannot be found elsewhere.

But on a recent trip to Sri Lanka to celebrate the New Year, I added another “souvenir” to this ritual-like list – sending postcards to my friends and family. And while I don’t receive these postcards myself, the joy I found when sending them out was greater than the enthusiasm I’ve had in collecting all my other souvenirs over the years.

As a child, I received letters and postcards from some of my closest friends when they moved abroad. I ended up with a small collection from Syracuse, Dubai and Kenya, but rarely responded to any of them. I found it quite strange that for a few rupees my letters could actually go such a great distance. But when my sister sent her friend a postcard from a trip to Cancun in Mexico, I realized there couldn’t be a better souvenir than a postcard!

Because, despite being open for the world to read, postcards are just so intimate—capturing the ethos of a place and the raw enthusiasm of the sender in its tiny little space. There may be few words that can be expressed on a postcard, but they are purer than anything. With it, a postcard becomes much more than a regular souvenir, like a fridge magnet; It becomes a treasure not only for the recipient but also for the sender, whose value is cherished for a lifetime.

perfect picture

And so, after posting several pictures of Sri Lanka’s beautiful landscapes on Instagram with the caption “Postcard Perfect”, I decided it was finally time for me to send some real postcards. With this new purpose in mind, I spent an entire afternoon in the quaint little town of Ella in the central highlands of Sri Lanka selecting some old postcards and sending them out to the 100-year-old post office. However, in this digital age, I had to resort to asking my friends for their postal addresses on WhatsApp, and the irony didn’t dawn on me. But the fact that I could share iconic works of art by some of Sri Lanka’s most famous artists in the form of postcards with my friends around the world was exciting. I met another group of people from India at a popular bar and when they found out about my idea of ​​sending postcards back, they were so impressed with the idea that I bumped into them at the post office the next day.

My trip to Sri Lanka did not end with my return to India. Because, I was eagerly waiting to hear the news of my postcards being received by their intended recipients. I got a chance to relive the precious moments of my travels almost every day as my excited friends sent me their pictures on WhatsApp again along with their postcards.

Some postcards crumpled during transit, but I believe this added another charm of authenticity to them; There is also excitement in thinking about how many hands would have changed in each postcard.
on the way , With the new Omicron version of the coronavirus leading us to a new peak, I wonder when I’ll get the chance to travel again. Until then, I will continue to relive my fondest memories from Sri Lanka through anticipation of my postcards being delivered, as two of my friends have yet to receive them.

Rishabkochar92@gmail.com