Time was, when the matters of the heart were at best not spoken aloud.  But times they are a'changing!

It was 7 p.m.and Margaret had just arrived at her house when she heard the doorbell ring.  She opened the door to find two young men breaking out into a 'Happy Birthday song', and presenting her with a bouquet and a cake with 'Best compliments' from her fiancé Praveen.

The two young men are part of a young organisation that calls itself Heart 2 Heart.  "The name symbolises our service; that of conveying the message from one person's heart to another person's heart" says Bhavik.  'Heart 2 Heart' is the brainchild of Bhavik and Ajit, students of LoyolaCollege.  "The whole thing is managed by a couple of our college mates.  Ajit and myself are classmates and are doing our BA Economics in the evening college at Loyola.  Since we were free during the days and wanted to do something useful and different, we developed this concept.  The concept of having a cake or a bouquet delivered has always been there, but it is more like a delivery service and is not really personalised.  When we added a guitarist and a song of the person's choice, we attempted to make it a little more personal", says Bhavik.

But are they really serious about what they are doing and delivering the money's worth?  "We may be college guys, but that doesn't mean we take this venture lightly.  The singers and musicians are professionals and have a passion for music.  For us the customer is very important, and till date we have had no complaints from that front.  Each of our customers has been extremely pleased with our service and we have had several repeat requests," says Ajit.

Though they usually prefer an advance notice of 36 hours, they also execute orders at short notices of around 2 or 3 hours.  Their services are available all 24 hours, and there is no limitation on the distance. "Customers need not worry about non- availability of guitarists or something like that.  We executed nearly 15 orders on Valentine's Day earlier this year, when we were just 45 days old.  We were on time for each of the orders and we gave the best service, even though some of the orders were to be delivered at the same time", says Ajit.

At Rs 350 /- for just a bouquet and a guitarist, the service does seem to look expensive, "Yes, it looks expensive but it remains just that.  It looks expensive on paper alone.  Every one of our customers till now has expressed that it was a wonderful idea" counters Bhavik.

"And it is not just wishing for birthdays we also have a lot of different concepts like airport pickups where we would go to the airport pick the person up and welcome him with a welcome song and 'mata tikka' (apply vermilion on the forehead - the traditional Indian way of welcome).  The person will then be transported to any place in Chennai, in a deluxe vehicle.  At present we use a Toyota Qualis for airport pickups.  Another service we offer is the air ballon messages; for wishing a person on some special occasion, be it a birthday, anniversary or any achievement, we can arrange for an air balloon, on which a message can be displayed to be seen from a radius of 1 km.  This would cost around Rs 3,000/- for a day and Rs 500/- for every additional day.  For this we require at least a week's notice.  If the customer wants us to display the air balloon in a public place like a shopping plaza, then he has to get the permission for us.  Otherwise we usually do it from the person's house, from the terrace", says Bhavik on the various concepts that are available.

Future plans in the making for Heart 2 Heart include, a three piece band comprising a vocalist, a guitarist and a key board player to play at small gatherings or parties.

For more details contact Bhavik on his mobile at 98400 86990 or Ajit on his pager at 9610 101696.

Address: AC-3, 2nd Avenue, Anna Nagar (West), Opposite Iyyappa Temple, Chennai 600 040.
Phone: 620 6794
E-mail: heart2heart@artlover.com