The stamps and those red boxes

When cleaning my room I came across this big white plastic bag. It contained blue inland letters , cards, parcel wrapping and letters. All were for me. I read it once more and then burned it.

People once wrote letters and then internet came in. E-mail made letters seem like snail mail.

Hence the letter's journey to oblivion started. It didn't take  much time to fall in love with letters. We are blessed in a way to belong to a generation where we once sent answers by competition post card. Though, there was not much letter writing involved but  process of going to the post office and buying competition post card attracted me as a child. Though it was my father who bought things from the post office , I loved imagining the scene. After matriculation exam, I started going to the post office by myself. After a trip to the post office near my home, post offices everywhere looked, smelled and felt identical. My attachment towards letters and post offices continue to grow.

Having a pen-friend was something fascinating. It was very unlucky of me not to get any replies from anyone. I wrote numerous letters to the girls of my age which I got from the pens pal section of children's digest. It is because of children's digest, I knew Kottayam existed in Kerala and hence it was my second preference when it came to chossing centres for IIMC.

The first personal letter I wrote was to a boy whom I loved. We had completed one month of our relationship and he wanted to share letters. The post office was not involved here but the art of letter writing remained the same.

He made me fall in love with letter writing and even now if I find difficulty in expressing my feelings,I  I do it with the help of a letter.

By writing a letter more deep thoughts n feelings towards each other can be expressed which is not possible over phone or sms.

It is the same with all the relationships in the world. Writing a letter is not an easy thing as to express feelings one needs to have a good vocabulary. The relationship will get stronger . Isn't this of utmost necessity in this age when despite newer technologies ,people are falling apart?

Moreover, with speed post a letter reaches the other end of India just within two to three days. Yes, the email will be reach in three seconds but isn't waiting a different form of love. It is more so needed in this age when we get everything without delay. It maybe expensive though but as the post department is trying to scrape the normal stamp feature , the rate of the speed post is bound to decrease. Stamped stamps will always make us reminisce of a time long gone. Antique things always caught the imagination of the people.

However, in India there are few people who still cherish the art of letter writing and even have pen friends. My brother Aahnik, is one of them. He has pen friends from Lithuania. Once in our university library, I met a girl who was busy writing inland letters to her family. I   got so ecstatic just by seeing her write in those blue inland letters. Some organisations and post offices are also organizing letter writing competitions to revive the tradition.

I hope that letter writing revives like a full mainstream communication mode or at least as a hobby. Many good things became obsolete. I wish letter writing doesn't go through the same phase.

But , things always come have a tendency to come back in a  different avatar which incorporates the classic nature of the old and convenience of the new. Everything that goes around comes around!