This morning I was looking for something. Not finding it I decided to open my childhood cupboard, the one whose use I had given up years back. I just remembered that it was full of childhood junk of all kinds and loads of audio cassettes, which of course are now obsolete with song downloading & online music the latest trend. For years now I hadn’t thought of its content, hadn’t realized what a treasure trove of lost time, innocence & pleasure it would be.
I naturally forgot what I was initially looking for when I came across numerous small bits of paper with my scrawny illegible hand on them, bits of discarded and broken toys, pebbles yes!!!! Pebbles (I fail to comprehend the lure and love for these small stones for a person any age and yet I couldn’t throw them out even today).
Finally I came across a bag full of old letters. Letters from friends and a very special teacher I once had. I couldn’t help reading them all. Laughed at some, tried to remember the events so vividly explained in some, guffawed aloud at the things which seemed so important to a teenage girl and yet to me were beyond funny today. All the while I had this peculiar and very satisfying feeling of watching my life unfold before me through those letters. A kind of calm descended on me. I was transported to a time which though is just 15 years old, but seems like a lifetime.
In one of the letters, my friend was trying to tear out of the fold to scold me for not picking up the landline because she herself had taken the trouble to go to an S.T.D booth just to be able to say a simple hello. Some friends took out time to write weekly and reading their letters made me realize that even I had written to them frequently.
The simplicity of times gone by stared me in the eye. None of us had imagined that life could change so drastically within a decade. Who could have imagined the cell phones, the emails, messages on the go, skype( for god’s sake)!!!!
My heart yearns for that simple, honest life. We have come a long way since then, not all bad I would say, but the personal touch is somewhat lost.
Such is the power of a letter. Even if we happen to read it decades after it was written, it still brings an honest, guileless smile to us.
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hi honey, really true those days were pretty days, letters n pebbles, feathers, stamps etc, todays childhood is away from all these, but we still miss them.
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so true….reminds me of good old days….I was very particular in writing a letter…a ritual to start with in a boarding school….than it became a need and finally when I was abroad it became a necessity….and slowly its gone from life……..one day it might come back to fill the vacuum…
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How quick and rushing life can sometimes seem, when at the same time it’s so slow and sweet and everlasting………Nostalgia a pretty sweet word contains sweet and sour times of life and you have captured those events very well that happened ….
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I once came across a couple who never kept any stationery in their home as they kept their smallest of records in the ‘gadgets’ they owned . . . I had then found this habit of theirs very disturbing coz the existence of pen, paper, etc was lost on them. Today I see many of their kind. Letters, records written by hand are something we don’t see often these days . It’s always good to see that some people like you enjoy the company of friends through letters . . . .
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A very beautiful poem on today’s fast life.
“WAQT NAHI”
Har khushi hain logo ke daman me,
par ek hasi ke liye waqt nahi.
Din raat daudti duniya me,
zindagi ke liye hi waqt nahi.
Saare naam mobile me hain,
par dosti ke liye waqt nahi.
Gairon ki kya baat kare,
jab apno ke liye hi waqt nahi.
Aankhon me hain neend badi,
par sone ka waqt nahi.
Dil hain ghamo se bhara hua,
par rone ka bhi waqt nahi.
Paiso ki daud me aise daude ki,
thakne ka bhi waqt nahi.
Paraye ehsaso ki kya qadar kare,
jab apne sapno ke liye hi waqt nahi.
Tu hi bata aey zindagi,
is zindagi ka kya hoga.
Ki har pal marne walo ko,
jeene ke liye bhi waqt nahi..! …
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Xcellent…….Life is just divided into two parts- First half is all about living it AND The rest is all about missing the moments lived.. Enjoy each n every moment..
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Yea mam…so true….letters ve it’s own touch…things ve changed drastically….due to technology….makin d communication simple but things r nt dt simple had its own complication….a hand writing of a frnd in a letter too speaks a lot of emotions….but nowadays it’s al gone….still life moves on…n v adjust to d new environment…:):) nice post mam…liked it alot…:):)
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Thank u Sunil.. It is a truth, widely acknowledged, that the more & easier means of communication we develop, greater is the risk of non- communication..
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Yes. Letters are so powerful against mails or messages. Written in your own handwriting against digital font. Handovered to someone in specific, in person against spams and unnecessary junk around it. Wrote 5 in last one month 🙂
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