You’ve got mail

One man’s missions to rekindle an old passion and share the love:

by Dimithri Wijesinghe

In this day of short message services, facebook walls, 140-word twitter limits, emails at the push of a button and all other tech-driven gizmos, a hand written letter, with all the connotations of old world charm and frustrations, is indeed a rarity. But that’s exactly what ‘Letter Earthlings’, founded by Nivendra Uduman an avid Sri Lankan letter writer, is doing.

On a mission to go global with spreading love through writing letters, the Earthlings with Uduman are also rekindling the old romance of letter writing.

How it works is quite simple, but what’s fascinating is Uduman, the man behind the vision who finds great purpose in listening to human narratives of both pain and joy. This incidentally inspires most of his poetry, where he captures lived moments in words.

Uduman, a multifaceted personality with diverse interests, is a musician, a giver of ‘free hugs’ at quite a pace on weekends and of course an avid fan of snail mail.

It is the latter that led him to create ‘Letter Earthlings’, a generosity driven initiative, he put together during his university days in Bangalore, India.

As with all great ideas, ‘Letters Earthlings’ began as a casual act of leaving letters atop water dispensers for unsuspecting strangers to find. He would then hide himself away and surreptitiously watch their reaction, progressing from utmost confusion to laughter, love and hopefulness.

‘Letter Earthling’ began with very small letter writing circles in Bangalore, Dubai and Colombo. These were not as frequent, given the initial shortcomings, but in a few months they not only have regular writing circles in these three cities but have also been able to host gatherings in Kuwait, Chennai and recently in Colombo.

Having officially kicked off ‘Letter Earthlings’ in Colombo, in January this year, Uduman and his letter writers have since been able to successfully conduct continuous letter writing circles.

Sharing stories

There are many things that make a letter writing circle special. These include not only the number of letter requests received, but importantly the stories that each of them has to share. For the letter writers at these circles, it not only becomes an occasion to contribute positively to the lives of these individuals but a place and space for fellowship and opportunity to tune into the love that one has within himself or herself and others, and channel that love to the letters, to empathies, show support and of course to be creative. There are no rules, no boundaries, just pen and paper, and a recipient’s address.

Like the message his letter writing ingenuity tries to pass on, Uduman’s personality exudes positivity. His passions range from children to education, humanitarian relief to social services and encompass an inexhaustible list. But his passion is for getting people to see the positive side of things.

With years of experience in working with adolescents and adults from diverse populations under his belt, Uduman helps people who experience difficulties like depression and anxiety, those who have undergone trauma like sexual abuse and domestic violence. He also helps couples with relationship and marital issues, even working with the LGBTIQ population in Sri Lanka, helping them cope with challenges and difficulties that they face in their lives.

Therapeutic approaches

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is Uduman’s preferred therapeutic orientation but he often uses other therapeutic approaches when appropriate. At present he is a Counselling Psychologist by profession who is a Senior Technical Officer and Psychologist at Samutthana (The King’s College London Resource Centre for Trauma, Displacement and Mental Health) and as of March this year, he also began teaching social psychology and positive psychology at the National Institute of Social Development (NISD). In addition to this, he continues his private practice as Counselling Psychologist, seeing clients for individual and couples counselling on weekday evenings.

Uduman also volunteered with the Centre for Social Action for several years, and was involved in providing supplementary education to underprivileged children living in the slums of Bangalore. He also visited several hospitals and orphanages to entertain children and to help in their healing process by just making them laugh. He says it was a beautiful experience and he still visits hospices in Sri Lanka to clown around when he has the time.

Uduman also enjoys his Sunday visits to Lankadhara, a home for girls, where he teaches them life skills and conducts other activities apart from academic work. Uduman has also volunteered at the Mount Lavinia beach on Sundays as a trainee lifesaver. He was on duty while training, and has received qualifications up to intermediate level.