When a letter held the key to happiness

Border, the blockbuster based on the 1971 war, completed two decades last month but the movie seems as refreshing as it was in 1997, and the songs still touch one’s heart. The other day I was watching one of the songs on TV in which everyone at the army camp goes berserk upon the arrival of letters. The song was choreographed on the letters received from near and dear ones, and the mix of emotions depending on the news they brought. The letter blowing away in the wind and the actor running wildly to catch it added to the melodrama.

This song took me back by quarter of a century when I was just engaged to my better half, and any letter received from her was handed over to me by my colleagues only when I fulfilled their demands whether it was to share homemade cookies or chocolates or promise to sponsor a movie. The same was the case with my better half. When she would return from college, her siblings ensured their pound of flesh before handing over the letter and that too after wearing off her patience. This was the importance of letters during that time. They touched an emotional chord between two persons.

Everything on this planet was discussed in the letters. The other day, I was going through old files of my father when I accidentally came across letters written by him and my elder sister. I was taken aback by the minute details he had written to me when I was in school. He had given out his programme for the next three months and his whereabouts during that period, down to railway reservations, so that in case of emer- gency I knew where he was. He would give out instructions based on his experience in life, which still help me in decisionmaking. He could convey so many meaningful things to me through his letters and not when I used to meet him face to face.

These days if you try to impart some knowledge to your child, you will find that they have already obtained the ‘gyan’ from the virtual world and parental words have no impact. Similarly, my sister who had just got married, wrote in detail about her plans relating to the search for a house, confusion whether to start her own practice or continue teaching in a medical college and others small things in life that we take for granted in the present world where every- one is just a call away.

Nowadays people are so anxious about their future that they flock to soothsayers to find out what will happen in the coming days. This despite having minute-to-minute account of happenings all over the world. This is in stark contrast to the period of letter writing, when you had no update of the present moment and were totally in dark about the future.

But we lived a joyous, carefree life with no place for anxiety, sorrow, stress or strain. Life was simple and one was always waiting for the next letter, which brought unprecedented joy and happiness, impossible to feel in the present world.

ANY LETTER RECEIVED FROM HER WAS HANDED OVER TO ME BY MY COLLEAGUES ONLY WHEN I FULFILLED THEIR DEMANDS WHETHER IT WAS TO SHARE HOMEMADE COOKIES OR CHOCOLATES OR PROMISE TO SPONSOR A MOVIE