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Saturday, March 16, 2013

The Art of Letter Writing............:(


Who has the time to write letters in the world of smart phones, Skype and cell phones?
The art has been slowly pushed to the back burner. 

I remember eagerly waiting for the postman on a cycle, sometimes on foot to deliver the letters, and he is one of the family person, and he is provided buttermilk, laddus, left over rice etc only when we feel like offering him. Even it's a money order receipt there is pleasure in receiving something initially hiding the disappointment.


Getting letters addressed personally was something to be proud of as those days the letters were always addressed to the man of the house and they were only in postcards and if the matter is more and it is written in inland letters ,, and next running to pages it would be in envelopes. 


Apart from the regular addressing there was no new way and the letters can be read by all ,no one felt offended, they never had a specific place and found place in open shelves corners in the hall, kitchen shelf, or in magazines. Sometimes they had come in handy to take out last left residues from the mortar stones due to its thickness. 


Some would write utilising the total space except the one for the address., some would write in all corners it's for the receiver to connect from where to where by rotating the head and making the head and tail out of it.It's so common that one never measures the space and writes in big sizes later as one remembers the size is cut down and in the end after consuming most of the spaces, the important message would flash and lo., it is squeezed to convey! But it's a way to enjoy reading. 


Those were the days of penfriends as now Facebook friends and receiving a letter to one's name is a thrill, not showing the letter to anyone and not allowing others to read appappaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


When I got married we never had personal phones and there would be one for a road owned by a rich land lord or owner of the house and it was always PP call.. so lengthy procedure.. So the only way was writing letters.. The distance made it it difficult, you keep guessing how much time it would take from one place to another.My husband stayed in Raipur M.P/ Chattisgarh .. whenever I came to Chennai  I would eagerly wait for his letters and sometimes I won't get in a week or two would come together!

After my trip to Vaishnodevi I wrote on a four side foolscap paper my experiences from the word 'go' and my father when he called me over phone said, nee yezhudina letter yennavo naangale ponaa maadhiri thatroobamaa irundhadhu' . ( the way you have written made us feel as if we had undergone the pilgrimage) Literally we could also feel breathless and felt your anxiety. 

I like to write letters and once he mentioned that my letters give him a feeling of having read Sivasankari's novels / stories.


 Many times the letter writing would extend up to two days because it would be written only once a week and that too for the parents and others it was not so regular and sometimes the letter would be full of questions and queries, I remember amma mentioning quite often whenever you reply always have my letter with you and answer my queries without fail  or else it would be taken up by her in the next mail stating that you have not replied to this..... mentioned in the previous letter' .


She is very regular and particular to cover all information in a letter .. 

NOW  coming to the generations after me, they do not know the value of either writing or reading a letter from parents, siblings and they may not even be aware of the usage of idioms and phrases, the coherent way of details ...God save them ..

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