Business News | A Newspaper That Talks Back: Habuild's Raksha Bandhan Idea is Going Viral

VMPL

New Delhi [India], August 31: Readers who opened their newspaper this week found something unusual on one of the inside pages: a small blue envelope, glued directly onto the newsprint.

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Inside was a real rakhi -- blue thread, small beads -- and a folded letter.

The page belongs to Habuild, the online yoga platform, and it is now circulating widely on social media, where users have described it as one of the most talked-about festive ideas of the year.

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How it works

The newspaper page is printed as a complete puja thali. Roli, a bowl of pedas and scattered rose petals appear in full colour across the page. At the centre, where a diya would ordinarily sit, is a QR code marked "Scan the Gift".

When a reader points a smartphone camera at the page, a video begins to play -- and the newspaper, in effect, starts speaking. The video leads to a signup page for a 14-day online yoga challenge, offered free of charge, which the recipient can gift to a brother or sister.

The letter

The element drawing the strongest response online is the letter inside the envelope. Written in Hinglish and running barely sixty words, it opens with three lines siblings say to each other without thinking:

"Medicines le li?"

"Thoda walk kar liya karo."

"Apni health ka bhi dhyaan rakha karo."

It goes on: "Bas khayal rakhte hain, bina bataye, bina jataye, ek-doosre ko healthy aur khush dekhne ki khwahish."

And it closes: "Toh is Raksha Bandhan, sirf raksha ka promise nahi. Health ka Shagun bhi dijiye."

Print, used differently

The challenge is led by Saurabh Bothra, who takes Habuild's daily online yoga sessions for a community of members across India, and who appears in the video that plays when the page is scanned.

Reactions online have focused on the use of print. Several users pointed out that the page is designed to be kept rather than discarded -- the rakhi can be tied, the letter can be saved, and the QR code continues to work each time the page is scanned. Others noted the scale of the physical work involved, with each copy carrying a hand-applied envelope containing a rakhi and a folded letter.

The campaign runs under the line "Iss Raksha Bandhan dijiye Health ka Shagun" and the theme #HabuildHealthKaShagun, positioning health as a form of shagun the traditional gift exchanged at festivals and ceremonies.

It follows Habuild's earlier out-of-home work, including a breathing billboard in Haridwar that invited drivers to breathe along with it during traffic delays, which also travelled widely online.

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(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)