By Umer Nangiana


Have you ever tried writing a letter to your country’s head of state or any other country’s? You would think they are busy people, why would

they have time for your letters. Well, it appears they do have time for one man’s letters. He writes to them and they reply. And not just

respond to his letters, they also graciously oblige his requests for their signed photographs.
Najeeb Ahmed Nasiruddin, an expatriate from Kerala, India, has been writing letters to prime ministers and presidents of different countries

since his childhood. Amassing their replies, he has built up a personal collection of their photographs and other communication through

letters.
A banker by profession, Najeeb has received over 80 responses from world leaders, most of them written in their own hand-writing. For the

second time, his personal collection was exhibited at Mal Lawal, one of the biggest showcases of personal collections in the region currently

underway at Doha Exhibition Centre (DEC).
Within a week of the start of the exhibition, the comments book at his stall was full. No wonder, people loved his work which is a hobby for

him.
“People like it because I wanted to show to the people that how world leaders react to public letters; how they respond. People mostly are not

aware and no one cares to write. This also gives a message to the people and to the society, how the world leaders react to different

subjects,” Najeeb tells Community.  
His work is different and unique. It is something that cannot be purchased. It has been constructed over a period of time. His love for writing

letters dates back to his childhood when he was just nine. He used to write to different clubs back in his country.
It was one of his uncles who prompted him to write to his country’s prime minister asking for his photograph. So Najeeb wrote a letter and to

his surprise he got a reply. It was a photograph personally signed by the then prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi with some nice words of

encouragement.
The idea was simple. In his letter, he had introduced himself and asked for a personalised picture to start his collection. The prime minister

wrote back. Thus began Najeeb’s hobby and his love for writing letters.
Since then he has written to several world leaders and has received replies from them. Besides felicitating them on their assuming office and

asking for their personalised pictures, Najeeb has also been writing on different issues of social and humanitarian importance.
Many people might be writing such letters and not getting any replies. Najeeb feels it is the way you communicate. His success rate has been

very high.
“I feel that writing is an art. It is a tool by which you can communicate with people, where you can express your emotions and your feelings,

and once it’s delivered to the recipient, no one can stop them from replying,” says Najeeb.
After the Indian prime minister, he wrote to the Pakistani prime minister across the border in 1991. He got the reply and a signed photograph

from the then prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif.
He started writing to leaders within India. For a 9-year-old student, sending letters abroad was an expense back then.
“I had to consider my budget then. I was a student and I had to arrange for the expenses from my own pocket money. Writing letters within India

was cheap as I had to just paste a one-rupee stamp, so if I got 10 rupees from my parents as pocket money I could send 10 letters. However, if

I had to send them abroad I had to spend 7 rupees on a letter,” recalls Najeeb. But he never stopped. And once he started earning, it went in

full flow.
Najeeb believes in a truly personalised letter. Each and every letter he writes, he says, he writes it with feelings and tries his best to

connect with the person on the other end. When he gets a response, he is excited as if over the moon. “It gives me immense happiness and

satisfaction. In some instances, people do not reply. If they do not reply, you cannot do anything. You cannot force people to reply. It is ok,

it is fine,” says Najeeb.
“But in most cases, I get a reply and it gives me immense pleasure. And each and every response is very dear and near to me. I value it and I

regard it and I thank them for the responses,” he adds.
Najeeb feels that the act of writing a letter with pen and paper still holds great value in the age of technology and platforms of faster

communication available at hand. “Fine, technology is there, all these means such as e-mails, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but I like to write a

letter which gives a personal touch to my communication. For instance, if you write an e-mail to a prime minister, he might be receiving 10,000

of them a day, he might not find it,” says the collector.
“But if you write a letter instead, I feel it becomes more personal. I have my own personal stationery with my own letter head so I type it, I

sign it and I send it. This is the way I communicate. Most of my communication is through letters, the post. I do not send couriers or

registered services, just normal post,” he adds.
How soon he gets his response varies. Sometimes it takes even months. But a reply does come. “Recently, this letter that I wrote to the prime

minister of Pakistan, I wrote it in May 2014 and I got the reply in November that year. Some letters, I wrote in February, I got replies just

last week. So it varies,” says Najeeb.
He follows news and keeps himself updated on world affairs. So he knows if a new leader is assuming office in some part of the world.
Besides writing congratulatory notes, Najeeb has been writing on burning issues to the leaders of the world and different humanitarian

organisation’s heads.
He has written to the Secretary-General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon and his predecessors. He has written to the heads of United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Last year, he wrote to Ban Ki-moon on the Syrian crisis. “I wrote to him about the situation of Syria, the

atrocities being committed there and the way people are being killed like there is no value for human life. Innocent people and children are

being killed on daily basis. What steps the UN body is taking? I asked him,” Najeeb tells me.
He did not get a reply yet he is satisfied. “I raised an issue which was important to my mind. As a human being when I see something happening

wrong, at least I speak up,” he adds.
Since his participation in first Mal Lawal in 2012, Najeeb’s collection has seen a healthy growth. In these two years, he has received 23 new

replies. He has personalised photographs of leaders sent directly to him from countries as diverse as USA, UK, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain,

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Brazil, Greece and Cayman Island, Finland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Costa Rica, Faroe Island, El-Salvador, Estonia, Seychelles. And the list goes

on.
Najeeb thanks the State of Qatar and the Qatar Museums for giving him the opportunity to showcase his work to the world. From his success, he

believes that the art of letter writing will survive the technology onslaught.
“See, the technology is always there. Even the world leaders are now using it; they are onTwitter and other sites. But on a personal level, I

feel that writing a letter is a powerful tool where you can communicate your feelings in a best way,” says Najeeb.
The younger generation is not aware of the pleasure attached with it and they must try. Najeeb’s 7-year-old daughter Nazia has tried it and she

loved it. Last year, she had a fancy-dress competition in the school and she was wondering what to wear. Her father suggested her to enact

Queen Elizabeth’s role and dress like her.
She did. Then, she wrote to the queen herself to tell her this. To the little girl’s surprise, she got a reply from the monarch. She also wrote

to Prince Charles and she got the reply from Clarence House. He sent her an activity book. And Nazia was excited!