Samyukta Menon, Visakhapatnam
If I had a penny for each time I wished I was part of the movie ‘The Notebook’, just so I could receive the letters Noah wrote, maybe I would have had enough money to buy the book instead of borrowing it from the library for the 383rd time. Oh! How thrilling it must be to actually receive a handwritten letter, to read the emotions someone has painstakingly put onto paper and to be given the chance to express yourself through ink. Sadly though, in this day and age letter-writing is a dead art. But worry not, for I will advocate the importance of letters written by hand until they come back.
All I’m saying is, if low rise jeans can come back then so can letters.
Letter-writing was a basic part of life during the wars as it was the only way people could communicate with their families at that time, but during the mid-20th century, it saw a decline and never quite came back. This was around the time there was a rise in the telephone’s popularity and the beginning of the social media era (basically when uncle-aunty started using Facebook— curse you, Zuckerberg).
However, there is a certain charm that letters hold that can never, in a million years, be replaced by WhatsApp messages, Instagram DMs, or god forbid me, those irritating Snapchat messages which disappear. And when I say ‘letters’ I don’t mean the business letters we learnt about in 10th grade English class (those are typed anyway) but those letters which people took the time to write, the letters through which you could see exactly what the writer was thinking at that time and the letters which took ages to reach their destination.
But why exactly are handwritten letters so necessary? After all, it's just a piece of paper stained with ink.
Letter writing is the most refined and expressive form of communication as to write a letter means to be vulnerable and bare your innermost thoughts on paper for someone to read. To receive a letter means that someone has placed an immense amount of trust in you to accept and reciprocate those thoughts.
Letters bring about a sense of familiarity. To identify the sender by giving one look at the handwriting, the type of paper used or by looking at the type of envelope the letter was sent in is something text messages could never compete with.
The act of writing a letter to someone can be considered a love language. The warmth and homely feeling it brings is indescribable. While I have personally never received a letter, I can imagine how special it must feel when you receive something which has been written just for you. Small tokens of affection are sent your way to let you know that someone is thinking of you.
At this moment, when everything around us feels fake or forced and we’re surrounded by two-faced Geminis (no offence to any Geminis, that’s just what the stars say— don’t hate me, hate astrology), wouldn’t it be wonderful to write someone a letter to show how much they mean to you and that they are worth every bit of the effort it took to find an actual envelope? To give something which is not only authentic but also ever-lasting, which can be treasured and read over the years, time and time again, until the pages are worn and the ink has faded.
There is no need for a grand or dramatic reason as to why you want to write a letter, you could even write one to yourself, but I for one think it's high time handwritten letters make a comeback, and this time they stay for good.
Those red post boxes seem too lonely.
Comments