

Piu Mahapatra’s unbound book of postcards Letter to Myself has received rave reviews from eminent artists, writers and readers. Here are a few select reviews.
Genre: Non-fiction
Format: Hardbound / Unbound
Pages: 43 Postcards / 86 Pages
ISBN: 978-81-943921-2-5
Publisher: Blue Pencil
Year of Publication: January 2021
Available on: Blue Pencil | Amazon India | Amazon USA | Flipkart
“What a timely book in lockdown days overtaking the qualms of the modern day no time life. Unfolding page after page I had a feeling that I was turning the ancient Vedas. Our minds are shaped by the books we read and each characters gave me the feel that I had at some point met them…
Piu you would be surprised that I had a sudden urge to write a book – on your book. Could relate to each incident, smell the air of the days gone by. A person from any part of the country must have gone through these phases of life. Some unforgettable memories some characters are forever etched in our minds.
I could fathom the depth of words even in the empty page with a drawing at the back, what lovely work! Congratulations! I could go on and on….”
Love
Lata
Lata Kothari
Founder Principal of a CBSE School in Kota. Lata wrote this touching letter to the author of Letter to Myself after reading the boxful of postcards. 🤗🤗🤗
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“A Treasure! Holding it in my hands and feeling it. A big congratulations to Piu and the whole team of Blue Pencil!”
~ Mithu Sen
A conceptual artist whose works examine how identity and myth intersect in her questioning of societal norms and categorisations in an Un-world.
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“This is an incredible collection of Piu’s recalling of intimate stories and anecdotes from her life, straight from the heart along with her equally sensitive drawings. So many of them felt like my own story or sometimes I wished I had a similar character in my life. The storytelling reflects the poet in Piu in a beautiful way. What I loved most is the format in which they are presented, a box of old postcards which are bound to evoke nostalgia on a personal level in old timers.”
~ Boisali Biswas
Mixed media Textile artist, educator. She is working out of her studio in Michigan, USA. Her work is a cauldron of multicultural assemblages, exhibited widely.
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A unique unbound book of short musings, stories and artwork
“An avalanche of mixed memories of my own childhood descended on me. Post cards from my grandma assuring my father that she’s received the monthly money. My mother’s dressing table with the ‘Kajal-lata’ and twisted tube of Boroline…. Postcards in India by themselves belong to a certain generation that have had many things in common in their childhood, hence share a common memory too. Because children in those days, long before technology took over, were innocent of social status.
The format- the yellow-beige postcard; the graphic images in bold black, drawn out of the heart of memories, tell a very decisive yet lyrical tale of a time- space atmosphere, that’s lost to the 70’s, 80’s generation of Indian children, yet will hold the wondrousness of a lost time for the millennials and later generations. Just like the Victorian era holds a special charm for us.
Loved the whole concept!!”
Chandrima Bhattacharyya
Practicing artist, shown widely. Collections in NGMA Delhi; Rubin Museum, NY; Emami Art collection, etc. Art educator, former museum curator, and occasional curator.
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“Such a lovely collection of reminiscences and reflections, that many of us will identify with. There’s a certain warmth and freshness, that I’ve come to associate with Piu’s writing. These are prose that are almost poetry if not actually poetry in a different guise. Coming as they do in the unusual format of a box of cards , they take the character of an art object rather than a book. I love the meticulous drawings, form and shadow, that sit on the address side.”
~ Manjari Chakravarti
Eminent artist, writer and illustrator of multiple books published by Scholastic Singapore and India, Armour publications Singapore, Tulika Books, Pratham books, Ektara and Oxford University Press
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“I finished reading the postcards. I remember my grandpa writing post cards in Urdu to some of his friends in Pakistan. Sometimes he used to get the reply too, that would lighten up his life for few weeks.
Reading Piu’s postcards, was like reading titbits, getting insight of Bong household, from an eight year old’s perspective. Learning the new meaning of the acronym ASAP and I love it and I am going to implement that in real life too😉
Overall good effort, great reading experience for me.”
~ Sarabjeet Kaur
A diploma holder in Mass Communication, Sarabjeet volunteers in an NGO Udyam Trust in their Mahila Samrathya Manch program, educating and empowering underprivileged ladies working around AIIMS, New Delhi.
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“I am a slow reader – and am reading these one by one – each and every story is an experience – an experience through the eyes of a little girl .
And the place where Piu Mahapatra succeeds very well is how she paints a complete image , a complete experience through very small details of the objects that belong to certain time , space and culture . She very easily transverse from the daily objects to human body , dotted with little conversations with the other and the self .
Ref – THE EYES TELL YOU ALL.”
~ Priyanka Bardiya
Practising artist and alumni of Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan
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Letter to Myself emerged out of a popular weekly column of musings and artwork Letters to Myself During the Days of Corona, which Piu Mahapatra wrote for Learning and Creativity.
Review Letter to Myself on Blue Pencil or Goodreads
THE LETTER TO MYSELF ADDA
February 6, 2021 LIVE on Facebook
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