Jorhat, Nov. 30: Nostalgic about writing and receiving those long, endearing missives of love? Thendon your thinking cap, let your imagination run wild and try your hand at penning a love letter and win a prize too.

The 14th edition of the Assam Mahotsav, to be held from December 9 to 23 this year, has introduced a new competition - writing a love letter. For those not into such mushy stuff, there is another topic - patriotism.

Partha Dutta, member of Intandem, the NGO which organises the event annually, said the competition is being organised especially to attract youngsters to take to writing letters again.

"In present times, all the communication takes place through emails, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. People have forgotten how to write those persuasive, creative letters with which they wooed their loved ones. We would like GenNext to have a try as well as to take a peek into the power of the written word in courtship through letters," he said.

The competition is called Nila Khamor Sithi, meaning a letter inside a blue envelope. In Assam, the blue envelope is associated with love messages.

For those whosewings of imagination do not take them into romantic overdrive, there is another topic - patriotism.

The Mahotsav will also have an on-the-spot photograph contest in memory of Intandem founder Trideev Bordoloi and a competition on writing in brief the history of three personalities of yore- former tea planter and philanthropist Bisturam Barooah, former Asam Sahitya Sabha president Sahityacharyya Jatindra Nath Goswami and poet Anundo Chandra Barooah.

Intandem secretary Dilip Kumar Bordoloi said this competition would make people read up on some of the greats of our society. Next year, three other personalities will be taken up and so on, he added.

Competitions for children will include drawing and ethnic fashion show.

There will be 160 stalls at the Mahotsav, including ones from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.There will be a separate pavilion for indigenous cuisine of different communities.

In keeping with Intandem's objective of promoting and showcasing the local and indigenous, self-help groups will be given stalls for free.

Cultural programmes will be held in the evenings, the major attractions being performances by upcoming flautist Bhaskar Kolita and singer Sangita Gogoi.