“What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can’t reread a phone call.” – Liz Carpenter
Do I sound like a bit of an old school type when I talk about the demise of letter writing? You could say that, though. We live in an AI-powered world, where instantaneous communication is now possible. You can just connect with people in milliseconds. Text and call them up, and that’s it. But tell me, how often do you scroll down those chats and reread them? Occasionally, you even record the calls with your loved ones, so how often do you play them? Last Sunday, while reading some online articles, I had a eureka moment. I was reminded again of the power of handwritten letters.
Letter writing is a nostalgic way to communicate that allows you to pen down your emotions and thoughts with a personal touch. Picking up a pen, paper, and some snippets from your garden can save you a lot of frustration.
Not so long ago, before technology slowly ate away at letter writing, the mailbox was just a treasure trove of love letters, birthday cards, invitation cards, letters from pen pals, and an experience full of serendipitous surprises.
A few years back in my school, before I had a cell phone, my friends and I would correspond through letters. Such good times they were. I still remember how aptly we would embellish them with captivating captions and imitate each other’s diction. I had an awash of those letters. In my childhood, I would mischievously open up my uncle’s cupboard and furtively read his diaries and letters. Imitating those quotes in the diary and trying to remember them was my favourite task. Many of us have done this in schools as well. Regrettably! It’s a fading practice now.
The last time I received letters was from my batchmates during our dorm leave in 2022. I love to get them out every once in a while and reminisce. There’s something unique about letters; they don’t disappear like electronic messages. These are long-lasting, tangible memories!
Without sounding luddite, I would explore why the “fading art” is worth preserving and practicing. You could read the lives of people through their letters. In the past, handwritten letters had been an important source for historians to record human progress and many important historical events. A renowned French scholar of Urdu, Garcin de Tassy, would send letters to India written in Urdu and would receive replies as well.
Even the Bible contains several letter-based books. In England during the 18th century, some artists would painstakingly craft their personas in epistolary scripts to pique the interest of their audience. Letter writing was not just a piece of smooth talk but an art form and a genre in various eras. Such as in Byzantine epistolography. The art form gave birth to a popular genre in the 18th century known as “the epistolary novel.” This phase was famously known as the “Great Age of Letter Writing.”
In the era of “zoom fatigue” and “doomsurfing,” receiving correspondence away from the screen can be a real delectation. So, if you have a pen and paper handy, then why wait until tomorrow? Pick them up and start writing to your loved ones. These letters convey what simply technology can’t. This weekend I plan to devout some time to the study of Ghalib’s letters. So let me wrap it up with one of his line…
“Javaab ka talib, Ghalib
Najaat ka talib, Ghalib.”