A touch of warmth fades away in digital age

Buy a card, scribble a catchy and meaningful note, stick the necessary stamp as per its weight and post it.

This was the tradition of wishing the dear and near ones who stayed away from home. Like many other traditions that rally around festivals, sending a paper greeting to the kith and kin in a stamped envelope is becoming a thing of the past.

“From the outset of the holy month of Ramadhan, shops across Muscat used to glitter with greeting cards. They varied from pictures of exchanging Eid Mubarak to classic mosque and the crescent moon. Now, the trend has dwindled,” bemoans Oman Ahmed, an Egyptian teacher.

Now festivals and celebrations have come in a multitude of forms mixed with the digital age, he says.

“We used to spend hours in shops to find Eid cards to send ‘Eid Mubarak’ to our loved ones back in the days when we did not have the Internet.we were dependent on the postal system for sending mails to exchange greetings.”

But he is happy that he still cherishes those memories associated with Eid as some of the cards he received in the past have found their way to his archives.“the value of emotions attached to these handwritten wishes is beyond any match. It was an art, indeed,” he says. According to Shahjahan, a salesman from India, sending a greeting card to friends and family members was never a simple exercise.

It required some effort, but it gave a lot of happiness unlike going to a website, downloading a card and sending it with the click of a finger, he says.

EXCHANGING EID GREETING CARDS IS BECOMING A THING OF THE PAST THANKS TO CONVENIENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS