PHYSICAL LETTERS- FRAGRANCE OF WARMTH AND LOVE

 आओ बचपन सींचें - 3
चाहे कितने भी बड़े हो जाएँ, फिर भी हम सब हमेशा थोड़े-थोड़े बच्चे ही रहते हैं l नए कपड़े पहन कर बड़े भी इतराते हैं l जन्मदिन पर गिफ्ट पाकर बड़े भी खुश हो जाते हैं l 
जरूरी है बच्चा बने रहना और बच्चों से जुड़े रहना l  




PHYSICAL LETTERS- FRAGRANCE OF WARMTH AND LOVE

Friends, have you ever written a letter to someone in your handwriting? No, I am not talking about the formal, friendly and official letters in your school curriculum but the real informal letters that we write or rather used to write to our friends and relatives.

I know you haven't. Who writes a letter nowadays? 

The communication is restricted to rotating messages on Whatsapp and other various apps. Technology is such a menace.

It is okay to adapt to the changing times but these new ways are certainly depriving us of the great fun, rich experience, memorable pleasure and sound learning that letter-writing imparts.

Digital communication is undoubtedly cheaper, saves time and saves us from the hiccups of the long wait. However, they are ingenuine, unfelt, crudely formal and often, borrowed. People rotate them in their circle. Such forwards are a mere formality usually lacking genuine feelings and reverence. Sending such messages may keep your terms with the recipients intact but not the bond. These messages are impersonal and sloppy. They, at times, might convey your exact feelings but still, they are somebody else's words. If you type a one-sentence-message in your own words, people would count it more valuable. 

As a writer, I know how putting a pen to paper feels. No doubt, technology saves times but it cuts the bonds and takes away the warmth relations must have. The introduction of emoticons was like the final nail in the coffin. These emotion-expressing-images replaced the words and saved us the labour of typing. They do convey the intended message but with the hollowness of formality. The other person readily deciphers it and does the same since the world survives on reciprocation- reciprocation in equal measures and equal degree of genuineness.


I wrote my first letter to my grandpa when I was seven. My father wrote to him regularly on sky-blue-coloured-Inland-Letters. We always had a bunch of them at home. It cost just thirty-five paisa and needed no postage stamp.

It had three leaves to write on and space for the names and addresses of both the recipient and the sender.

An Inland letter can be sent anywhere in India- that's what inland means here.

Once, after writing on the two pages, my father asked my sister and me to divide the third leaf into two halves and write short letters to our grandpa. He guided us about the beginning and told us what we should write. We did that gleefully and waited anxiously for grandpa's response.

The reply, when finally came, was overwhelming. 

He had written, "Reading the first letter from my grandchildren gave me an unforgettable moment of joy and pride. I read their innocent words umpteen times and had tears in my eyes."

His reply encouraged us. Our writing to him on the third page of the inland-letter after our father filled the first two became a ritual. Gradually, our letters were becoming longer and innovative.

After a few months, I wrote to him my first independent letter on an 'unshared' Inland-letter. After some years, we started writing letters to pen-friends and exchanged books and souvenirs.

When my father got a transfer from Pune to Gwalior, I used to miss my friends and teachers. We exchanged letters. I was fond of my Hindi teacher Mr. Ved Prakash Mishra. Every time I wrote to him, I used to ask questions about life and poetry. He replied with elaborate explanation and zeal. We communicated through letters for many years. His letters were like a treasure for they were the testimonials of his knowledge and prowess in literature. I proudly concede that writing letters is a privilege and I largely owe my writing skills to this lost practice.

Physical letters have a charm of their own. Your heart starts beating faster as you receive a letter and doesn't retrieve until you open it and read. My experience says every person reads a letter he receives from his family or friends many times before keeping it in a safe.Along with the sizzling smell of paper and ink, a physical letter contains the unadulterated fragrance of emotions and bondage. Through the hand-written words, you can peep into the heart of that person and might see him speaking those words to you.

The only thing where the modern messaging apps score over the physical letters is the instantaneity. But, we tend to be short and barren as regards to emotions. There is nothing to savour, unlike physical letters that we preserved for years and read them time and again, feeling the same fragrance every time.

Interaction is a destination and communication is the path to reach it. The promptness of digital communication is certainly a boon but isn't it making us emotionless, dry and less likable. Please ponder.

Today, I urge you all to write a postal letter to someone- a letter long enough with words coming from your heart. For a change, let your handwritten words speak for you. I swear you will not regret. 

Please give yourself the pleasure of the privilege of writing a letter. A letter comes up when the heart dictates what it feels, hand writes, and eyes wear the expression that those emotions translate into. You will smell the real warmth and love.

And, please do convey how you felt and how the other person responded to your 'unusual' gesture.