A G Kerleekar/TNN
Bangalore, Jun 4: When the love bug bites you, you either say a short and sweet ‘ILU’ — as lyricist Anand Bakshi wrote in a song for the Hindi film Saudagar — or choose a longer way.
Harish Kondakkuli (30) of Kavalakki village in Uttara Kannada district has chosen the latter. Not because he is in love.
Harish has written a love letter — 143 pages long — to an imaginary lover to enter the Guinness Book of Records. The letter, in Kannada, begins with ‘Preethiya Abhisarika’ (Dear Abhisarika) and ends with ‘Mathe ninna nireeksheyalli kanasu marida huduga’ (Awaiting you...).
Harish, an employee of BSNL, claims he penned his ‘masterpiece’ in leisure to popularize letter writing. He started writing on Valentine’s Day this year and stopped on May 25.
"I used to write one or two pages daily after 7 pm. I am used to writing as I had written stories when I was in college and later wrote to several newspapers and magazines,’’ says Harish.
Since the common code word of lovers is 143 (I Love You), this love letter contains 143 pages, its length is 143 feet (papers are in 12X10 size). The total lines are 4,136 and total words 33,100.
Whether he enters Guinness or not, this eligible bachelor is hoping this love letter will find him a bride.