When I first stepped into a boarding school in Bijapur, way back in the 1960s, I acquired the nuances of letter writing. The school had one period every Friday earmarked for writing a letter to our parents. We had the choice of either using an inland letter or the ubiquitous postcard so thoughtfully made available by the Indian Post and Telegraph Department.
My class teacher, aided by the class monitor with other seniors, diligently did the rounds taking upon themselves the task of teaching us how to write a letter. Their formula mandated starting the letter with an ‘OK / Bijapur’, written distinctly on the top left corner. This was to immediately signal to my parents that I was ‘OK’, the ‘Bijapur’ part indicating that I was staying put on the school premises. Fortunately the team did not interfere with the content of the letter, although they kept to themselves the right to read and censor it, if necessary. A wise precaution indeed because it made sure all the students wrote only of the pleasanter aspects of life at the boarding school.
For several years thereafter, I had to suffer a lot of ribaldry and banter about the ‘OK/ Bijapur’ bit from my people at home. Perforce I meekly put up with all of it since I had never understood myself how one glance at the top left corner of a small sized inland letter or postcard with a few scribbled lines that formed the body of the letter could convince anybody that everything was hunky dory at the boarding school?
Very soon, I began to take pride in my letter writing skills and began writing long letters to all my family members, specially those who responded. The handwriting was initially a problem, but I improved markedly in this sphere too. Filling up the letter with meaningful content however remained extremely irksome. I soon thought I had devised a solution and once wrote to a younger cousin a short story from the Ramayana. I thought this was the way to go, since I now had excess content. Unfortunately, this did not work out either for I was soon pulled up and told that letters are for sending information, news or greetings and definitely not for writing lengthy stories.
Soon, as I got on top of letter writing came the e-mail era. Snail mail was gradually getting replaced by the electronic form of letter writing with its own etiquette. Writing without pen and paper took some time to get used to while getting a good Internet connection and remembering ‘strong’ passwords became major obsessions. Now handwriting stopped being important but subtle changes in the letter writing format were required resulting in the warmth and ‘feel’ of the missing paper invoking nostalgia.
Cutting to the present day, the WhatsApp generation has turned letter writing into an entirely different ball game. It seems to be more about communication through messages, not actual letter writing. While typing in a message, you are constantly wary of mishaps that make a message disappear without your having pressed the ‘send’ icon. You need to put up with unusual abbreviations and strange expressions that often leave you guessing. You tend to constantly keep a look out for those two blue ticks and when you don’t get a reply you can’t say whether the receiver is angry, bored, busy, or just plain dissatisfied with the message you sent, whether you have caused a major misunderstanding or you are being plain ignored!
Unlike the humble pen and paper that I used for letter writing, the smartphone on which I punch in letters with my thumb, is required for several other tasks as well. In a restaurant the other day, the same phone was needed to download the menu, place my order, receive an OTP and then confirm the order. Either I do this or I go hungry! With myriad competing requirements will I get enough time to send detailed messages like I used to with the letters of the past?
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