Rohini Kejriwal is a Bangalore-based freelance writer, illustrator and curator of the weekly newsletter and Instagram account ‘The Alipore Post’ which is the meeting place of poetry, art, music, photography and ‘all things creative’. Chitthi Exchange, an online letter exchange program where one can find a pen pal, is one of Kejriwal’s most recent passion projects which was born when the pandemic began to rage in India. In fact, this snail mail initiative which depended on postal services and inter-city letter exchange can be labeled a confrontation of the pandemic. Most things that the first wave deprived of people, Chitthi Exchange provided on a silver platter. Forging human connections and breaking the routine that victimized everyone was made easy by this timely revival of letter writing. Speaking to News Karnataka, Kejriwal, a connoisseur of letter exchange, spills the tea about all things Chitthi Exchange.
First and foremost, Kejriwal narrated the origin story of Chitthi Exchange, her brainchild. She said, “Chitthi Exchange came up last year during the pandemic because people were in need of connection. I’ve always to do a pen pal exchange. I have had very positive experiences with it as a kid and an adult with pen pals and letter writing, in general. I’m also a boarding school kid so there’s a very personal connection to letters. I find it to be one of the most beautiful ways of communicating in a digital age because it is a forgotten tradition”. Kejriwal added that she was working with her intern (Tanishka) last year who wanted to improve community engagement. She continued, “Of all the projects that I had on my to-do list for some point in the future, we thought that this could be something really cool to work on. I created a page, made a logo, called it Chitthi Exchange because ‘Chitthi’ for me is the penultimate way of remembering letters and there’s also a beauty to that word”.
Taking a peek into the mechanics of the program, Kejriwal explained, “We ask people to share a few personal details and their interests, hobbies, where they are based and their age to get a sense of who the person is”. Elucidating the process of matching pen pals, Kejriwal said, “I have been doing the pairing on Google Sheets where I try and keep the demographics and interests in mind. Like two people from Bombay shouldn’t be writing to each other so we pair them with someone else. It’s funny because we’ve actually had a lot of people who know each other in real life being paired up. But I happened to find those two for each other out of five hundred people. There have been cool coincidences like that also”.
Speaking about the challenges she faced while running such a program in an unprecedented period of state-sanctioned restrictions, she shared, “Last year when this started, I was doing it as a monthly thing. But it became a little too hectic. One of the problems was that either people kept dropping out or just because of Covid and the times we’re in, a lot of letters were lost, a lot of people did not hear back. So, I had to keep re-pairing and following up with people. If you become pen pals, you take it forward on your own. I can’t keep pushing people to write letters to a stranger. The whole idea is to embrace it and experience it in a very new way. Because a lot of people who signed up have never written a letter or received a letter that is addressed to them. So, that was the idea behind Chitthi Exchange”.
Elaborating on the matching process, Kejriwal shared, “It all depends. I think whenever I get into it, I start seeing commonalities. And the demographics definitely matter. For instance, some people from abroad signed up. I can’t expect someone from India to write to them and spend around Rs. 1800 per letter or however much it takes. For the ones abroad I tend to pair them with each other. And it’s quite instinctive”. Kejriwal ingeniously found a way to use technology to revive tradition. Explaining how she got these two polar opposites to work together effectively, she said, “One of the cool things that Google Sheets has is Ctrl+F. So, if you look for a specific word, then you can go through who else has used that. That is something that I often do. If someone is into cycling, for example, I might look for that because if people have bothered to mention that as their interest then there is something common there. Even things like stamp collection, reading, etc. There are also a lot of pairs where I don’t want it to be the same kind of people like that. It’s random and I take a chance”.
This pairing, which does not follow any grammar, has forged some miraculous, adorable and fulfilling friendships for 1000s of people. Excitedly speaking about one such pair, she said, “Last year one of my favorite pairings was a seven-year-old boy from Coorg and a lady who’s 60+ from Bangalore. Now, they’re great friends. It is really cool to have a younger generation experience this because the pandemic has really taken a toll on children. So, I’ve kept it as a 7+ category for younger people also to sign up and get an experience of that. In terms of demographics, we have a lot of teenagers. 15-25 years was the maximum age group. Then, we have individuals going upto 60, 60+ also. And it’s cool because we have about 2500+ people writing letters to each other, however regularly it might be.”
The process of matching pen pals is overseen by Kejriwal every couple of months. The current cycle of accepting pen pals closes in June. “For that we’ve got around 250 people who signed up. It’s usually around that, it goes upto 500 each time I’m collecting. But now I’ve started doing it every two months. Like I collect e-mails for two months. Then once over a weekend I’ll sit and send out those emails to everyone, do the pairing”, she said, speaking about the most recent cycle of pairing.
As was Kejriwal’s objective, the process of writing a letter, waiting and receiving one as a reply helps the pen pals in countless ways. Sharing her personal opinion on this romantic aspect of letter exchange, she said, “It is a choice to be vulnerable and to really start opening up to a stranger and somewhere there is a trust starting towards me also. Because they trust me to given them a good partner. I can’t ensure that based on names or whatever little information I have”. Elaborating on the purpose of Chitthi Exchange and letter writing, in general, she said, “It’s not even about writing. It’s more about the aspect of the letter being written with ink, with a pen. It’s a nostalgic experience- going to the post office, putting a stamp, making sure it reaches, that whole anticipation of waiting to know if they’ve got it”.
Segueing to her role in this letter exchange equation, she said, “That is one thing I have blocked out. I don’t want people to sit and follow up with me about whether their letter has reached or not. Because the idea is to wait, it is called snail mail. It takes its own time to reach its recipient and when they get the time they send it out. So, it’s just a very cozy back and forth that happens through letters”. She added that for her the best aspect of letters is that it is tangible and it stays with people for the rest of one’s life and this idea feeds her role in Chitthi Exchange. She shared, “I have a leter collection for the past 15 years and it’s quite a nice bundle to keep returning to. It takes you back to who you are, what you shared. This general sense of mystery and nostalgia is what I’m trying to evoke through the exchange”. As opposed to a fleeting direct message on Instagram that is retained by no one’s memory, Chitthi Exchange is an emphasis on letters and words as keepsakes and correspondence that leaves an aftertaste for ages to come.
Getting to the bonds created between pen pals through Chitthi Exchange, Kejriwal said, “I hope it’s special and is something that is actually adding value to their lives. Like I said, there are 2500 people, there is no guarantee that it’s a successful that is happening. I don’t really follow up with people because it is very individual. A lot of people have lost family members. It must be nice to have a pen pal to share things with”.
Mining from her personal bonds with letters and pen pals, she added, “I’m still in touch with my pen pals. One is from Sri Lanka and another is from Delhi. And this is from when I was 12. We are all still in touch. For me there is another one from Hong Kong who keeps sending me these long letters. It’s just something joyful and unexpected. That also comes through in the bond that is created. You really start appreciating the fact that someone has bothered to write to you, to share their life. A lot of people also share little goodies like bookmarks or they make a painting on the letter or colour it up. It’s always fun to receive, it is something very child-like. At the same time, it’s very universal. There is no age to it. Our parents have written letters, their parents have written and this is just a way to keep it going. For me, The Alipore Post is also for the love of letters. I have my own postbox as well!”.
When asked about her vision for Chitthi Exchange, she replied, “I live in that world and Chitthi Exchange is just a natural extension of it. I do not know if I will continue this project once the pandemic is over. Because there are a lot of other projects around the world where you can find a pen pal. But for me to have done this during this difficult time is definitely something that I am proud of and am happy to have enabled people to experience this”.
Speaking about the pen pals matched by Chitthi Exchange in the post-pandemic world, she opined, “I think they will continue. I feel like at least some of them definitely would. Maybe I should do a survey on how their experience has been”. She added that it could become a more volunteer-based initiative if she finds the right people to trust with it and do the time-consuming and tedious steps like pairing and sending the e-mails. Understandably so, running such an expansive project solo can be unimaginably challenging. On a positive note, she concluded, “I feel like pen pals won’t stop. The tradition of letter writing isn’t going anywhere. But it’s their own life, whatever it takes for the people who are participating. There is no guarantee of how that plays out. But by and large, hopefully pen pals of Chitthi Exchange will continue”.
Kejriwal, the curator who wears several hats, has not fit the bill of modern day correspondence, she has bludgeoned the bill. In an age of only seeing post boxes in our peripheral vision as we drive past them, Kejriwal brought back to life the romance of writing a letter and waiting for a response. This tradition may never go out of style. Unlike digital platforms, there is no mechanical assurance that the message will get delivered or read. When the world stood still, Kejriwal, the skillful matchmaker of pen pals, conjured miracles and conquered all odds to share with everyone the joy she found in letters. There is beauty, anticipation and freedom. What’s not to like?
