The era of letter writing

I crave to experience that age where letter writing used to be the adorned gift for distant communication.One person would sit and contemplate for days what to write since the letter would take months to reach to the other side of the world, where the dear one dwelled.There would be a wealth of stories, incidents, and sentiments to write about- of wars, of explorations, of love, of betrayals, of dreams, of hopes.

With the letter being the sole means to converse from afar, the language would benefit from the writer’s feeling of separation and longing. Often inspiring profound sentences of adoration and intellect, with the anticipation that they will make the reader feel warm and comforted while being read.

And in the absence of emoticons, which make emotions get expressed in a generalized fashion, there, one would be absorbed with a dictionary or thesaurus to unearth the precise words to express the emotion elaborately.Some sentiments may even get transformed into beautiful verses with rhyming words.

And once the letter was dispatched, one would wait and imagine if the letter had reached, if the letter was received with as much yearning as with which it was written.And questions would flutter in the mind of the writer like a restless bird. Did the words carry the feelings well? Did it comfort? Brought the smile? Conveyed the warmth?

Several days will pass, and seasons change in hope and optimism of receiving a reply. The quill and the papers on table would be looked upon with a promise.And then on one fine day, a knock would be heard at the door,  with the horseman standing outside, who, when you get out to meet will  declare, “There’s a letter for you Sire!”

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19 thoughts on “The era of letter writing

  1. I used to have a couple of pen pals, one from Tasmania and one who lived in London and I can remember waiting eagerly for her letters. Definitely a lost art. And then I’d collect the stamps as well. Times have definitely changed, now all I get in the mail is bills!

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    • Haha! Bills aren’t that interesting I know! 😉 I am thrilled to hear you had pen pals! I always strived to have one, but everyone said to me with a look of disdain” But you have the emails now! ” Darn! Stamp collecting! Voila! It used to be my passion too! I collected quite a bunch of them and pasted them in a small rectangular booklet I made by myself with 4 stamps on each side of the page! 🙂

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  2. My mother is so grateful the letter age is past and she can reach anywhere through her phone, calls, texts, emails etc. She tells us we don’t know what it feels like, to wait for weeks before getting a reply.

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  3. I remember those days in school when we eagerly wait for our names to be called out to receive our letters! And stuffs written in those letters… ahhhh.
    Thanks for taking us down memory lane.

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