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You've got mail I couldn't
believe my eyes. Here was an envelope full of closely written sheets
of paper addressed to me. I'd just spoken to her on the phone the
day before. I'd been sending her text messages throughout the day.
What could this letter contain? Questions and
answers sped through my mind. I tore open the envelope carefully;
afraid I'd spoil its contents. I'd rushed home that evening thinking
of everything that needed to be done. I was completely stressed
out. I'd promised myself I'd complete all that needed completing.
But the magic of the letter lured me. And soon I had slipped into
the comfortable old armchair (which no one has the time to enjoy
anymore) and was immersed in the letter. It contained a recap of
everything she'd been upto during the last year. I'd read a bit,
laugh a bit and then think a bit. The letter had transformed my
day. I love to write.
I can write pages and pages on anything and everything. It would
constitute nothing but a "collection of haphazard ramblings
of someone living in this day and age" to anyone who'd bother
to read it later on, but I'd still write. I can leave reality and
enter a magical world where everything goes according to plan. And
then I'd come back. Yet I've never written, (meaning physically
put pen to paper in order to write a letter to someone) for a long,
long time. But I did. That evening I put away all my assignments
and banned anyone from calling me to the telephone, I locked myself
up and I wrote. As I carefully
slipped the crisp white sheets into the patterned envelope, I couldn't
believe what I had just done. I'd sat down, spent (wasted?) one
and half-hours to write a letter to a person who lived a stone's
throw away. Usually I never wrote to anyone. I'd e-mail them, I'd
phone them, I'd send them text messages but I wouldn't dream of
writing to them. How did the letter trigger off this strange set
of emotions? "It's
just that a handwritten letter is so personal," says a letterholic,
"Anyone listening to me would think it all to be sentimental
rubbish and wishful thinking. But receiving a handwritten letter
is so lovely. E-mail will never replace letter writing; it's an
art unto itself. Whenever I check my e-mail account it would be
full of forwarded mail. So much so that I usually delete it all
in one go. I find it difficult to understand the text messages I
receive on the phone because the language is so incomplete." Another agrees.
"Even the banks now send computer generated letters. They have
no signature on them. There's just this sentence in big, bold letters
at the bottom - This is a Computer Generated Invoice and therefore
requires no signature." Nobody has the time to even sign a
note. "I remember how my grandmother used to write to me. Every
birthday card, every Christmas card would be accompanied with a
sheaf of pastel shaded paper beautifully adorned with her handwriting.
I still have a couple of those hidden in an old shoebox somewhere.
They make it seem as though she's there with me all the time." Technophobic parents keep in touch with their children overseas through e-mail. "I hate sitting at the computer and typing everything I want to say. But it's so convenient and so quick that I feel compelled to do so." "Convenience
aside, the reason I prefer to send e-mails is due to my atrocious
handwriting, which anyone is yet to decipher!" smiles another,
who is a mother of three and the grandmother of four. "Whenever
I sit at the computer to type a letter to my daughter in England,
my husband says that I should be seated at my table writing a letter.
What he says is very true. A letter is so personal, you can read
it over and over again and feel as though the writer is right beside
you." The waiting
period is what bothers most about a letter sent via snail mail.
"You'll never know if the other party received it, or whether
it got lost in the post. You'd never know what that person thought
of until the reply comes to your doorstep." With the electronic
method it is the complete opposite. If a person has changed his/her
address, the letter would be returned. But if the person is still
available at that address the reply is almost simultaneous. "I used
to write long letters to my pen pal in the States, some time ago.
Then we decided to shift to e-mail and our long letters died a natural
death. She only sends me forwarded mail now," says another
letter freak. In my case I now feel happy. Once I had posted the reply to last week's letter I couldn't wait until she had received it. When she finally did, she replied; and it made my day once again. Why not write that long overdue letter today? Want
to write the perfect letter? 2. Don't fill
more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written
sooner! 3. The best
subject, to begin with, is your friend's last letter. Write with
the letter open before you. Answer his/her questions, and make any
remarks his/her letter suggests. Then go on to what you want to
say yourself. 4. In referring
to anything your friend has said in the letter, it is best to quote
the exact words, and not to give a summary of them in your words.
A's impression, of what B has said, expressed in A's words, will
never convey to B the meaning of his/her own words. 5. Don't repeat
yourself. When once you have had your say, fully and clearly, on
a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that
subject. 6. When you
have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend,
however necessary you may have felt it to so express yourself, put
it aside till the next day. Then read it over again, and fancy it
addressed to yourself. 7. If your
friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed, or make
your reply distinctly less severe: and if he/she makes a friendly
remark, tending towards "making up" the little difference
that has arisen between you, let your reply be distinctly more friendly 8. Don't try
to have the last word! This is especially true if the letter is
addressed to a female. 9. If it should
ever occur to you to write, jestingly, disparagingly of your friend,
be sure you exaggerate enough to make the jesting obvious: a word
written in jest, as opposed to spoken in jest and taken as earnest,
may lead to very serious consequences. 10. When you
say, in your letter, "I enclose a cheque," or "I
enclose A's letter for you to see", leave off writing for a
moment-go and get the document referred to-and put it into the envelope.
Otherwise, you are pretty certain to find it lying about, after
the post has gone! |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
years
who lived down the next lane.
