Proud Words

Sometimes the most significant effect in our lives is brought about by an entity far away. We may not see them or hear of them on a daily basis. But they are always there,steeped in their avowed duty,making sure that we continue to live in a safe country. At every Independence Day dawn,voices of nostalgia rise. Commemorations are made,remembrances are observed. But for the Indian soldiers,posted at war fronts or volatile borders,the commitment to independence and territorial integrity is an everyday fight. The thought of acknowledging this deep commitment of every Indian military hero is what drove city-based NGO Quintéssence Pune to think up ‘Faqre Se’. Under this campaign,the NGO will launch a website and a micro-blogging site today where anyone can post letters to any military hero they admire. Faqre Se has an active Facebook page that states the focus of the initiative is on the content,but the writers have complete freedom of expression. Letters of appreciation and/or gratitude can be either emailed to qpune@hotmail.com or posted to Quintéssence Pune’s Pimpri office. There are some sweeping rules that have been put in place to regulate the inflow of letters,but they don’t pose any impediment on the letter-writers’ sentiments.

This is the first activity if the year for the NGO that was formally established two years ago. “Our ultimate aim is to gather the letters and present them to a higher military official or to the defence minister of the country at an event. We are still planning out which day and location to have the event at,” says Rohit Valecha of Quintéssence Pune. The campaign that will kick-start today plans to continue gathering written words of goodwill till January 26 next year. It could be extended to August 15 next year if the response demands so. Prior to seeking an online forum for this idea,Quintessence had run a project where they had approached school children to write letters. “We still have with us close to 3,000 anonymous letters to the military men,” says Valecha. The online trail will build on the letter collection already made. “We decided on this because online is viral. We reach out to more people like this,” says Valecha.

The description page to the NGO states that “Quintéssence is derived from “quinta – essentia” which means the five elements. We have related them to the five elements of the environment : Prithvi,Agni,Jal,Vaayu,Aakash.” The organisation is a collective of socially-conscious youngsters. Their e-zine called ‘Quest’ is a monthly affair,while under a project called ‘Bachpann’ they organise events to support underprivileged children. Recently,the Bachpann group members had halted at traffic signals at Koregaon Park,MG road and more areas,and washed cars in exchange for donations to support orphanages and old-age homes. “We managed to collect close to Rs 76,000 in 15 hours,” says Valecha.