Taking a step towards APJ Abdul Kalam’s vision for an India throbbing with young dreams, a new illustrative book on his 86th birth anniversary brings together the dreams of people, handwritten on postcards.

A stunning assemblage of over 200 handcrafted postcards, ‘DREAMNATION: Uniting a Country with Handwritten Dreams’ co-authored by Saji Mathew and Jubie John, takes one on a profound journey to the dreams, hopes and aspirations of a nation, inspired by the words of the former Indian President.

“Dr Kalam made every Indian, especially the youth, start to believe that their dream can indeed come true, thus adding another facet to his life – the architect of young dreamers of India,” Kiran Bedi,lieutenant governor of Puducherry, writes in the Foreword for the book.

The book has been neatly divided into four sections — Spark, Resilience, Decision, and Take-off, each based on a dream-quote of the ‘Missile Man’ of India. The ‘dreams’ featured in the book were chosen from a the tens of thousands of postcards that people wrote from different parts of the country, in different languages, and sent to a common address — Dear Kalam sir, LetterFarms, post bag 1683, Kochi 682015.

The dreams range from personal ones to larger dreams of young India. Some of them include — stopping child labour, women empowerment, saying no to dowry, economic empowerment, clean country and planet, cultural integration, religious harmony and their dreams for their country for the future.

“The ingenious tool old school yellow postcards used to capture the dreams, have become a new found tool for the youth to handcraft their dreams and goals for the future. DREAMNATION aims to unite a country of immense diversity through (handwritten) dreams, enabling to create a new-gen dreamers, goal-chasers and achievers,” Mathew said.

“With the support of public and private institutions, we hope to take this compellingbook to every young dreamer in India for them to be partakers in the dream nation called India,” John added.

The book was unveiled online on Twitter today by Mithali Raj, captain of the Indian women’s cricket team. “Dreamnation:uniting a country with handwritten dreams. A special book releases for a fitting tribute to Dr Kalam. Dream it. Achieve it. “#dreamnationbook -let nothing stop you from dreaming big and flying high. Remembering #apjabdulkalam on his special day,” Raj tweeted. The book is being published by initiative by non-profit organisation LetterFarmsand Bloomsbury.