" Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company"
~Lord Bryon
There was a time when I was a kid who spent his evenings killing red ants with stones and walked around the front lawn with a big stick in my hand and with an even bigger air of a king lording over his subjects that were caterpillars and all other kinds of insects one would only find on Discovery Channel. That was the time when my father was a sailor, the time when I lived with my mother and the time when people used to write letters. I remember the postman in his khaki uniform who dropped a blue inland (a type of postcard cum letter only found in India. refer to picture on the right) into my mailbox which I would bring to my mother to read. On opening it I would straight away ask her,
"Did Achan(father) writing anything to me?"
He usually did. Probably just a line or two asking my mother how I was doing. And on hearing it, I would blissfully grab my stick and run back to my kingdom and my subjects.
That was the time when emails were unheard of, when sms was perhaps still being developed by some bespectacled genius in a lab and when the fax machine seemed like quite a technological marvel. That was the time when people wrote to each other. Whether it was between parents and children, between husbands and wives, between boyfriends and girlfriends or just between friends, letters were what that bridged the huge distances that separated people, that allowed people to narrate their stories, that made them reflect on their lives and that made them feel that they were not alone in this world. And I remember that what was great about letter writing was not just the writing, but the waiting, the anticipation one had to go through until the next letter arrived. The whole process of letter writing was anything but lifeless.
And then somewhere along the way, the bespectacled genius succeeded in coming up with the sms. Emails made their entrance and people were sending emails to each other faster than they could think. With this increased speed came the increased expectation of a quick reply. Waiting was not an option. Stories and reflections were usually replaced with a few lines or sometimes just one line. People almost stopped writing and when they did write, they themselves could not really comprehend what was written.
It seemed like it was the end of letter writing.
Though in truth, we all still love to write and to get a letter. A few years ago, when I was slugging through my junior college, there used to be the angel mortal game, when juniors and seniors exchanged letters to each other along with gifts of sweets and sometimes toys. As childish it did seem to me then, my friends never seemed to get enough of it. Everyone would eagerly wait for the reply from their angel or their mortal and write back by the following day.
It was just like the old days, except that the letters came without the stamps.
~Lord Bryon
There was a time when I was a kid who spent his evenings killing red ants with stones and walked around the front lawn with a big stick in my hand and with an even bigger air of a king lording over his subjects that were caterpillars and all other kinds of insects one would only find on Discovery Channel. That was the time when my father was a sailor, the time when I lived with my mother and the time when people used to write letters. I remember the postman in his khaki uniform who dropped a blue inland (a type of postcard cum letter only found in India. refer to picture on the right) into my mailbox which I would bring to my mother to read. On opening it I would straight away ask her,
"Did Achan(father) writing anything to me?"
He usually did. Probably just a line or two asking my mother how I was doing. And on hearing it, I would blissfully grab my stick and run back to my kingdom and my subjects.
That was the time when emails were unheard of, when sms was perhaps still being developed by some bespectacled genius in a lab and when the fax machine seemed like quite a technological marvel. That was the time when people wrote to each other. Whether it was between parents and children, between husbands and wives, between boyfriends and girlfriends or just between friends, letters were what that bridged the huge distances that separated people, that allowed people to narrate their stories, that made them reflect on their lives and that made them feel that they were not alone in this world. And I remember that what was great about letter writing was not just the writing, but the waiting, the anticipation one had to go through until the next letter arrived. The whole process of letter writing was anything but lifeless.
And then somewhere along the way, the bespectacled genius succeeded in coming up with the sms. Emails made their entrance and people were sending emails to each other faster than they could think. With this increased speed came the increased expectation of a quick reply. Waiting was not an option. Stories and reflections were usually replaced with a few lines or sometimes just one line. People almost stopped writing and when they did write, they themselves could not really comprehend what was written.
It seemed like it was the end of letter writing.
Though in truth, we all still love to write and to get a letter. A few years ago, when I was slugging through my junior college, there used to be the angel mortal game, when juniors and seniors exchanged letters to each other along with gifts of sweets and sometimes toys. As childish it did seem to me then, my friends never seemed to get enough of it. Everyone would eagerly wait for the reply from their angel or their mortal and write back by the following day.
It was just like the old days, except that the letters came without the stamps.
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