Letters to Lahore: Chandigarh poet turns peace messenger

Amy Singh, 26-year-old, is a popular name in the poetic circles of Chandigarh. She helped her friend, who was battling with cancer, by writing and selling poems. She wrote poems on request to collect funds to aid in her friend’s treatment.

Inspired to foster harmony across the border, Amy has started a new initiative called “Daak – To Lahore with Love”.

Under this initiative, she along with others write letters to people in Lahore, addressed to the General Post Office in Lahore, although she does not have any direct contact with people living there.

“It was in December 2016, when a popular food joint in Chandigarh changed the name of its biryani corner from Lahore Chowk to Lucknow Chowk, amidst tensions on the border. It hit me hard and moved me to pen my first letter to Lahore. Since then, I have written many letters and even posted some of them to the General Post Office in Lahore, Pakistan. Whenever I read a letter at an event or posted it online, people resonated deeply with the feeling and thus idea of ‘Daak’ initiative came about” says Amy.

The initiative has been garnering support from several quarters. Ambala’s PKR Jain Vatika School pledged to write and send 2000 letters across the border with the message of peace and friendship. Chandigarh’s Sahitya Chintan has also offered to take the initiative forward. Amy is also planning to install ‘Daak’ letterboxes across Chandigarh for ease of access.

She says, “I have personally never received a response. Although, once, a Karachi-based poet Asad Alvi wrote a reply to me on FB after reading a poem I had written for Lahore. My letters are not addressed to anyone in particular, even though I send it to the General Post Office. I hope, this time someone will read them and will write back.”

On the content of her letter, she says, “My letters are written on a note of hope. In my letters, you will find one love and one Punjab. They defy borders and partitions.”