Letters...
There is this popular TV Ad for an equally popular phone network - very poetically created with beautiful cinematography. A bunch of kids in a village are playing with paper boats sailing them in puddles. What's so special about that? There is... the boats are made of unused Inland letter cards and Postal envelopes! The message conveyed is that people even in the remote rural areas do not need snail mail now, and that telephonic communication is extensively available - thanks to "their superior" network!
Yes, it's all very well and we can't deny the comfort we enjoy in today's fastpaced world. But nevertheless, I found it unnerving - the wasting away of those unused letter cards that so remind me of their happier and glorious days.
Remember them? The cute post cards your aunts and uncles used to send you at festivaltimes, the blue inland cards your grandparents used to write to you and your parents, and the greeting cards and thick envelopes you used to 'Plz Rush To" your hometown friends when you (or they) were away for college!
Where have they vanished now? I am sure, if you are a nutter like me, you'd have them all stacked in a giant-size plastic bag or gunny bag and kept safe in a loft or the top shelf of your closet.
But have you ever bothered to take down the lot and flick through the sheafs of the aging pages? I doubt there is a better way to liven up life and love! There is nothing more self-rejuvenating than seeing the loving messages inked by your loved ones' handwriting, especially FOR YOU! No bulk forwarded goodmorning SMSs or email messages were known then!
The present day's frostiness and langour will melt away like ice and you will feel an inexplicable glow of warmth and love that you will want to share with everyone around you!
What will you not give to go back to the summer holidays you spent ecstatically at your granny's village! But you can relive those evergreen memories when you read your granny's letter asking you to come and stay!
And just think, the bond of friendship is never sweeter than in your teens and preteens.
Today's teens are said to be a lucky lot. Parents see it as a status symbol that their kid caries a mobile to school.
But I honestly thing that millions of forwarded jokes, goodmorning SMSs, or interactive e-greetings cannot replace the warmth you used to feel when you "open with smile" a loving (or teasing) greeting card your best friend sent your way, in those good olden days!
I mean, writing was a major (if not the only) means of communication even just a decade back. That was before the Ambanis, Mittals, Nokia etc... saw it as their major responsibility to connect people!
I agree, one would be chucked off to a museum if they talk against the communication revolution we all have come to enjoy today! But yes, it's only communication and very effective that is. But where is the rejoicing connection?
It looks like no technology can equally satisfy business needs and emotional needs. It sure dips towards one side and you know better which!
So all-in-all, the e-Mail, palm-tops, Hand-helds, SMS are all faster but the snail was much more sweeter!
