i remember receiving my first letter from my then best friend. i must have been about 10, . we went to the same school and saw each other every day. and we obviously lived a walking distance away. but i still talked her into writing letters. having no phones and no medium to communicate, especially during holidays, made my task easier. so during the summer vacations, when she was visiting her grandparents in 'then' Madras, I wrote to her. the first letter of my life. i don't remember the contents but i am fairly certain there was nothing in it that was any different from our everyday chatter, the usual everyday chatter of any two 10 year old "best" friends. yet, writing a letter to her had its own exotic charm. an elated sense of privacy. it was like the first step to freedom, the first step to growing up. and though i don't remember the contents of her reply either, i still remember waiting anxiously every day for her reply; and feeling like on top of the world when i had finally received it.
for years after that we used to send cards on birthdays and other occasions to various friends and cousins...saving for months before a festival from school pocket money, going to the shop and spending hours picking out the right cards, wishing they weren't so expensive...there was such a sense of accomplishment after every festival, i still remember the happy feeling that lingered for weeks after that. with time that tradition too faded away
as the years passed the need to express freedom through letters disappeared. i got my own phone, email id, it was so much easier to just call, so much faster to email. it was excitement and convenience. but every once in a while, while cleaning the closet i would come across these old cards; they now looked silly and childish and yet so simple n happy. they always made me smile. and happy, wistfully happy.
it was almost 11 years after i wrote my first letter ever, when i finally ran into a person who was equally mad and who thought that in this age and time of instant communication, writing letters was still the best form of long distance communication. and after 11 years, once again i made a trip to the post office, bought a few inland envelopes and wrote my first letter. and i realized what i had been missing all these years in phone and email.
holding a pen over a blank piece of paper waiting to pour down thoughts and emotions, waiting for days to receive the reply, opening the mailbox to find envelope with a hand written address on it amidst all printed bills, a piece of paper with someone's handwritten emotions on it, irrespective of the contents...letters are a ritual..an elongated process that requires time, effort and patience and in return gives a feeling of belonging
a letter may not be unique in its sense of privacy..but it is, in its sense of intimacy.
its like running into an old friend by accident after years, having no idea that person would be there despite having him on ur facebook, orkut, linkedin , e-mail contact list and phonebook....
for years after that we used to send cards on birthdays and other occasions to various friends and cousins...saving for months before a festival from school pocket money, going to the shop and spending hours picking out the right cards, wishing they weren't so expensive...there was such a sense of accomplishment after every festival, i still remember the happy feeling that lingered for weeks after that. with time that tradition too faded away
as the years passed the need to express freedom through letters disappeared. i got my own phone, email id, it was so much easier to just call, so much faster to email. it was excitement and convenience. but every once in a while, while cleaning the closet i would come across these old cards; they now looked silly and childish and yet so simple n happy. they always made me smile. and happy, wistfully happy.
it was almost 11 years after i wrote my first letter ever, when i finally ran into a person who was equally mad and who thought that in this age and time of instant communication, writing letters was still the best form of long distance communication. and after 11 years, once again i made a trip to the post office, bought a few inland envelopes and wrote my first letter. and i realized what i had been missing all these years in phone and email.
holding a pen over a blank piece of paper waiting to pour down thoughts and emotions, waiting for days to receive the reply, opening the mailbox to find envelope with a hand written address on it amidst all printed bills, a piece of paper with someone's handwritten emotions on it, irrespective of the contents...letters are a ritual..an elongated process that requires time, effort and patience and in return gives a feeling of belonging
a letter may not be unique in its sense of privacy..but it is, in its sense of intimacy.
its like running into an old friend by accident after years, having no idea that person would be there despite having him on ur facebook, orkut, linkedin , e-mail contact list and phonebook....
