Daakiya daak laaya…. daak laaya
Khushi ka payaam kahin
Kahin dard naak laaya
Thus went an old song of the 70s. It describes how eagerly one used to wait for the postman to arrive with letters, sometimes bringing messages of joy and happiness while sometimes bringing sad news.
Try to go back in time, and recollect when was the last time you collected a personal letter from a postman. I am not talking about documents sent through modern day couriers or through speed of registered post. I am talking of letters – like the one a newly married daughter used to write to her mother to convey her status of acceptance (or the lack of it) in her new house, or the one a son used to write to his father updating about his progress in education while staying in a hostel thousands of miles away.
The last letter I wrote, perhaps, was some good 15 years back I guess. As a kid, I often used to write letters to my grandparents whenever they were not staying with us. I can still remember the enthusiasm with which I used to post the letters in post box, and await eagerly for them to reply. When the reply came, I used to be so excited that I used to sleep with the letter under my pillows. I still have some of those letters with me. A letter from an uncle preaching why something that I was doing was wrong and why I should change my ways. A letter from grandfather congratulating me on my achievements in school and one from grandmother about stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, are still a part of my most prized possessions.
The telecom revolution in the 80s and the internet in the late 90s and early 2000’s have drastically changed things. Phone calls have become more and more affordable. A letter would take days to deliver, whereas a phone call is instantaneous. Internet delivers Emails almost instantaneously. Added to it, the applications for chatting (text, voice and video) have actually reduced distances drastically. Today, my mother sits and talks to my brother in the USA using Yahoo Messenger and Skype as if he is sitting right next to her.
But all said and done, nothing gives you a personal touch that comes with a personal handwritten letter. A phone call lasts for a few minutes, an Email never gives you a feeling that a letter gives. You can keep a letter for years together and go through it again and again, whenever you feel like. Can you do the same with modern means of communications? (Actually yes, you can record conversations and go through them again and again :P)
Earlier, if someone used to make physical notes, using pen and paper, or write down reminders in his or her diary, today it’s entirely electronic. Notes are typed on laptops or tablets and reminders are set on a mobile phone. When I was pursuing my MBA not so long back, people hardly used to take notes using paper and pen. Mostly it used to be jotted down on MS Word or Notepad. The advantage of this form is replication is very easy. A copy just needs to be circulated and everyone has what everyone else has taken down. In the earlier era, it used to involve a painful exercise of copying what someone else had written down (which later came to be replaced by the photocopier, which directly copied what someone had written and used to be circulated among everyone else)
Once I finished my engineering, three years of working and I had lost touch of writing so much that when I was about to appear for the first semester MBA exams, I was very apprehensive if I would be able to actually go out there and write on paper for two and a half hours! Slowly, I am sure that even examinations will happen by making use of the electronic media. Some entrance tests have already gone online and it’s only a matter of time before the rest follow suit.
Gone are the days, when handwriting used to be one of the important parameters to assess a person’s personality. It’ll be interesting, if 20 years down the line, people will even know how to write. The art of writing is surely but certainly vanishing. It will for sure become an ‘art’ in the years to come.
Khushi ka payaam kahin
Kahin dard naak laaya
Thus went an old song of the 70s. It describes how eagerly one used to wait for the postman to arrive with letters, sometimes bringing messages of joy and happiness while sometimes bringing sad news.
Try to go back in time, and recollect when was the last time you collected a personal letter from a postman. I am not talking about documents sent through modern day couriers or through speed of registered post. I am talking of letters – like the one a newly married daughter used to write to her mother to convey her status of acceptance (or the lack of it) in her new house, or the one a son used to write to his father updating about his progress in education while staying in a hostel thousands of miles away.
The last letter I wrote, perhaps, was some good 15 years back I guess. As a kid, I often used to write letters to my grandparents whenever they were not staying with us. I can still remember the enthusiasm with which I used to post the letters in post box, and await eagerly for them to reply. When the reply came, I used to be so excited that I used to sleep with the letter under my pillows. I still have some of those letters with me. A letter from an uncle preaching why something that I was doing was wrong and why I should change my ways. A letter from grandfather congratulating me on my achievements in school and one from grandmother about stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, are still a part of my most prized possessions.
The telecom revolution in the 80s and the internet in the late 90s and early 2000’s have drastically changed things. Phone calls have become more and more affordable. A letter would take days to deliver, whereas a phone call is instantaneous. Internet delivers Emails almost instantaneously. Added to it, the applications for chatting (text, voice and video) have actually reduced distances drastically. Today, my mother sits and talks to my brother in the USA using Yahoo Messenger and Skype as if he is sitting right next to her.
But all said and done, nothing gives you a personal touch that comes with a personal handwritten letter. A phone call lasts for a few minutes, an Email never gives you a feeling that a letter gives. You can keep a letter for years together and go through it again and again, whenever you feel like. Can you do the same with modern means of communications? (Actually yes, you can record conversations and go through them again and again :P)
Earlier, if someone used to make physical notes, using pen and paper, or write down reminders in his or her diary, today it’s entirely electronic. Notes are typed on laptops or tablets and reminders are set on a mobile phone. When I was pursuing my MBA not so long back, people hardly used to take notes using paper and pen. Mostly it used to be jotted down on MS Word or Notepad. The advantage of this form is replication is very easy. A copy just needs to be circulated and everyone has what everyone else has taken down. In the earlier era, it used to involve a painful exercise of copying what someone else had written down (which later came to be replaced by the photocopier, which directly copied what someone had written and used to be circulated among everyone else)
Once I finished my engineering, three years of working and I had lost touch of writing so much that when I was about to appear for the first semester MBA exams, I was very apprehensive if I would be able to actually go out there and write on paper for two and a half hours! Slowly, I am sure that even examinations will happen by making use of the electronic media. Some entrance tests have already gone online and it’s only a matter of time before the rest follow suit.
Gone are the days, when handwriting used to be one of the important parameters to assess a person’s personality. It’ll be interesting, if 20 years down the line, people will even know how to write. The art of writing is surely but certainly vanishing. It will for sure become an ‘art’ in the years to come.
1 comment:
very true Nitin... i remember writing long letters to my cousins during Rakhi. they used to be long, with details about my exams/ vacations and general stuff..... now the rakhis go along with chudi, sometimes delivered thru someone who's going there. and even if I were to send it, i really wouldn't know what to write! everyone is virtually so close that when the letter actually reaches there, it's like reading stale news.
earlier, i remember my amma's chudi kagads also used to be full of recent news.... now all the recent news scrolls up on fb! and the letter that accompanies the chudi kum kum is 4 lines short!
just before i read ur last para I was thinking if our kids/ grandkids would ever learn to hold a pencil in their hand???? and maybe they'll never need to learn ABCD the way we did. they'll learn the QWERTY! :)) Remember the ABCDEFG rhyme? maybe that's how QWERTY rhyme will be said. hehehhee... come to think of it, i'd hate it!
it is amazing that u have preserved letters from ur gps.... m sure u treasure them now nd will forever.
cheers!
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