In a gesture of goodwill, AGGL has brought out a range of greeting cards for the jawans fighting on the border. The cards come free of cost whenever you buy greeting cards at Archie's outlets. All you have to do is pick up a card, scrawl your name on it and drop it off at a mail-box.

The envelopes come printed with the Army Post Office address. And the cards already have a message printed in them. The messages are bilingual -- Hindi and English, mainly -- and express both support and encouragement: `Vande Mataram', `We are with You Always', `Go Ahead and Capture the Heights', `You are our Only Hope'.

Not surprisingly, the response to the cards hasbeen overwhelming. The soldiers have actually written in to say how the cards have touched them and encouraged them in their fight against the enemy.

A simple gesture, but the patriotic cards have helped AGGL live up to its commitment to be around "as long as people reach out to people". Which has been their business so far. Whether it is Valentine's Day, Teacher's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day or even Friendship Day, AGGL has put in stupendous effort into making Indians aware of these basically Western concepts and send greeting cards appropriate for the occasion. And they have added to the list essentially Indian festivals like Bihu, Eid, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Rakhi, Holi, Diwali, Bhaiya Dooj and Onam, so that the greeting card business has come to be transformed into a personal communications industry.

Today, 20 years since the first AGGL outlet was started in Delhi's Kamla Nagar, the Archie's chain has 398 shops dotting virtually every commercially viable shopping centre in the country, and a turnoverof over Rs 46 crore.