The Lost Art

I am here to mourn the loss of a great art, that of letter writing. In this age of SMSes and emails, we are forgetting how our eyes used to light up at the sight of familiar handwriting on envelopes, how we used to wait for days to receive a reply to letters written to various relatives. We no longer do that, not even on special occasions...we send birthday, anniversary, new year wishes through sms, emails…...a standard message for everyone, empty words most of the time, or forwards of messages received.

Yes, emails have taken the place of letters, but it is not the same. It does not give the same feel, does not convey the same sentiments......and it becomes individualistic, the whole family more often than not just gets to hear the gist, and fails to connect with the writer.

I still remember how I used to write letters to all my cousins and wait for the reply. Mere sight of the postman was enough to rouse anticipation. In fact, my cousin's neighbor was a postman and whenever he passed her house, she would rush to the door, stop him, and inquire about her post. At last he got so annoyed that one day he stopped to tell my cousin that since he lived in the same lane, he would be passing her house a number of times in a day, not every time to deliver the posts. And since he had no desire to retain her posts, he would hand over the letters as soon as he receives them. These days courier boys are more common to sight than postman.

Last time I went to visit a cousin, he showed me my old letters written to him over a period of time. It was so touching a gesture......I had never expected they held so much meaning for him. And I have preserved all the cards he sent me because they were oh so beautiful......it was much later that I came to know they were hand painted and not printed.... (Flip side of being such a good artist)!! Letters, when read and reread, can recreate the magic, let you travel back in time and has the capacity to revive a person's spirits. They help strengthen the bond between two people disconnected for several reasons.

In this fast age of technological breakthroughs, it seems this art is now lost forever. It is a lot easier to connect though emails, sms and phone calls, though they cannot touch that core of your heart. I see no possibility of revival of this art.....and can do nothing else but mourn its loss.