Letters are like pictures but only better. A photograph captures a moment, while a letter is simply a bouquet of different moments, incidents, and feelings, like different versions of you, safely wrapped in an old leaf. It’s like a platter of ice creams with all your favorite flavors and sometimes even the flavors you don’t prefer. Oh! I should have been a tad bit clear; here, I refer to letters that you write simply for fun, to your Annu, Amma, Akka, friends, maybe to yourself, or just some open letters. Some get sent as emails, some as actual physical letters, while most are still saved in your drafts. (maybe all this is just me, anyway.)
If you know me, you already might know that I like writing letters; likely, you may even have received one! I write long emails updating about what’s happening with me to even my parents because they sometimes are so busy for a call, and I have many vishayas to tell! But mostly because I feel letters are a much better way of giving an entire story.
Here’s why –
- When you are having a conversation, it usually gets diverted depending on the answer given by the other. But in a letter, you have the entire stage, full limelight, and undivided attention of your audience.
- Letters often are not based on real-time, so you have the total freedom of enjoying the event by fully being present and then re-live it while you describe it to your intended audience. And it’s not a given that the person will receive the letter right away or that they will give it a read and reply in a jiff, which means, by the time you receive a reply, you might even have forgotten about the letter altogether!
- You also get enough time and chances at trial and error; you can translate your thoughts into sentences that have a high resemblance to your thought. You can choose the tone and the words. Basically, you control what to tell, how to tell, and how much to tell!
Other than these, it improves your language, imagination, understanding, and, most importantly, patience. So, yeah, Letters are simply awesome! Oh no, I don’t have a problem with telephone, text messages, emails, WhatsApp, social media, and recent advances because they are very much a part of our everyday lives now and necessary. I do not deny their power and need at any cost. They do make life easy. But I would like to bring to your notice that letters have an old-school charm, something royal and the most personal touch.
Now that I think of it, I have always been a fan of the Indian Railways and The Indian Postal service. They connect the most rural parts of our country. It gives me so much joy to receive or send a letter that will travel through so many states, cities, villages, by air, by rail, by road, in train, in van, in ship, bus, and cycles to finally reach the destination – doesn’t it make you feel special, like some important being?! To me, it does.
In a world where we are running to save time while ending up wasting all the time that we manage to save, I think letters take us back to a time where we can feel like that old self who wrote it/received it, at least for a short while and that brings me joy! Letters are not like a time machine because they are a present that reaches someone in the future carrying a past. In short, Letters are simply the best, and we should bring them back.
Would you be willing to post something?
Out of the blue. 