In a touching tribute to former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary, an illustrative book with hundreds of handwritten postcards were released here on Wednesday.The book, titled "Dear Kalam Sir", is a collection of more than 350 handwritten postcards from people across the country and tells a vivid story on Kalam's life through the eyes of the common man. The initiative by LetterFarms, a Kochi based NGO, engaged thousands of people from over 200 cities. "One of the most fascinating features of the book is how we could unearth and weave together a vivid storyline of Dr. Kalam's life from the huge piles of postcards by people of diverse backgrounds from over 200 cities," said Saji Mathew, co-founder of LetterFarms and the book's co-author. "It perfectly blended together into a book, echoing India's diversity and un-paralleled unity, even though our instruction to anyone who wanted to participate was 'postcard is your canvas and sky is your limit'", he added.
Published by Bloomsbury India, the book provides a sneak preview of the dreams and aspirations of young India with tributes in nine languages, including Chinese and German."We're very excited about our unique collaboration with the LetterFarms. The very fact that the postcards included in this book are from common people who voluntarily participated in this phenomenal campaign proves beyond doubt that the book is a quintessential tribute by the people for people's President", said Bloomsbury Managing Director Rajiv Beri.The book has a foreword by former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor and a preface by Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy."We all know that Kalam continues to trigger the dreams and aspirations of young India even today. This book is perhaps the first attempt till date that tries to understand that aspect in greater detail and what we saw was un-paralleled for any leader India has seen till date", said co-author Jubie John.The "dearkalamsir" campaign was launched on Kalam's 84th birth anniversary last October and called upon people to offer a handwritten tribute to the 'People's President' on a simple postcard.