Before I start my monologue, this is a penny for your thoughts. How many of you still write to your long distance relatives or friends? In recent past or ever, have you written anything to anyone? In most of the cases the answer would be no..I might be generalizing here or taking the liberty to do so. But, that remains a sad fact. We are not a generation of written words anymore. And if we are lucky enough to have someone who does write for us or to us, we don’t have the time or patience to read and respond.
How sad is this. 20-30 years back we had brilliant authors and poets, and we would have even now. But how do we know when we don’t read or write because we never seem to have enough time. When have you last written a letter, a note, a few sentences to show someone how you feel? I for one always have felt comfortable with a pen and paper in my hand. They have been my constant companion for the past 20 years atleast. Whether I have felt good, bad, ugly, pretty, sick, sad, joyous, happy, angry, I have always written. And I have written my heart out, always expressed exactly the way I have felt. I won’t consider myself some supremely talented being but just someone who could express her feelings in words to others.
The Why of it lies in the joy of receiving a letter or a note from a person who is dear to you. In today’s world of technology I will settle for a properly worded message too. But to my disappointment we are constantly short of time to such an extent that we use acronyms for commonly use phrases. I for one could never get the hang of the slangs such as, BRB, BFN, TTYL, and most of all K..really, K instead of OK? What are we thinking? What is the hurry that we can’t word a proper message for our friends, family or colleagues? And do you have any idea how it really feels when you get a nice and thoughtful message these days on your birthdays or some such occasions? Messages that are carefully crafted and not taken carelessly from Google and forwarded it without even proper editing.
Obviously, when we are too busy to write K instead of OK, where do we have the time to write letters? How on earth did Napolean Bonaparte found time to write to Josaphine then? Or Beethoven and Tchaikovsky wrote to their beloveds? These were the people who were world leaders in their fields. Even in the shortest of their letters you find the kind of love and emotions to engulf you in warmth and fill your eyes with tears of joy. The way Frieda Kahlo describes her feelings for Diego or Zelda Fitzgerald to Scott Fitzgerald, how could we not be swayed with sentiments? The point/question remains if we are consciously pushing writing away from us? One year rolls on to another and drifted away friends become acquaintances and gradually become strangers, so much so that we can’t even remember anymore how we had met in the first place. To this I have one of my own incidents to share. I was 16 when I met and befriended a girl on a train back to Varanasi. In the journey of 2 days we found out that we have a lot in common and we exchanged addresses and started writing to each other. Eventually, she became my junior in the same department in college and we remain friends to this day. We wouldn’t have been, had we not started writing to each other. More fascinating is how I remained close to my best friend even after moving away from her. After continuously and religiously writing and sharing everything with each other for 10 years we finally met again after our respective marriages and we are as close as no 2 other people ever are on this earth.
Letters have the power to take you to the person writing it. Letters are the portal to a place where you have not yet reached but you visit it through those letters. I have shared and been part of joys and sorrows, success and achievements, happiness and worries of another person just through the letters. When I got engaged to be married, the best gift received to this day remains a huge hand-made card by my younger sister who vented her heart out in it. We were the two constantly fighting and bickering kind of sisters. The kind who yell at each other and stop talking to each other for every stupid little reason. Yet, she gave me a gift that I have, to this day held dear to my heart. Letters have their own story, their own magic and drama, their own life essence that nurtures our memories and make them everlasting. Trust me on this for I have the most beautiful collection of letters of my dear friends.
After you have read this, if this post forces you to think about or makes you write one note or letter to anyone ever, in that case do so. Try it once, write how you feel, share it with those who you care about and love. My kids have this habit of making/leaving little notes along and it makes my day to read them. You too would give a similar joy that is surprisingly refreshing and uplifting to others. You won’t need a dictionary or encyclopedia to write such letters/notes, use your heart and that would be enough.
P.S. – Do ‘write’ in comments atleast one note to someone who really is important to you and pass/share this post along to them so that it reaches them and makes their day a happy one!
theotherwise03 