You've Got Mail: The Age of Letters

Dear Reader,

Few things surpass the delight and quiet charm of receiving a letter from a loved one. Nowadays, mail is limited to unsolicited promotional mail from small businesses and financial statements from banks. I can’t recall the last time I received a letter. The occasional birthday cards do still show up, but letters are done and dusted. Such a pity because I adore receiving letters. But then, to be fair, I don’t write any letters anymore either.

I don’t know which side of this debate you’re on but I agree with anyone who argues that letters are costlier than a bunch of text messages or a phone call, a hassle to dispatch, call for greater effort to write and take too long to reach their recipients. These are all good points.

And yet, if you’ve ever come across an old letter—creased with time, the paper turning yellow, written in a familiar handwriting—you know that it’s a time capsule transporting you to a simpler time when you believed doing badly in the mid-term tests was a matter of some importance.

I have a friend who used to write to me letters with doodles of Garfield which, in my opinion, have stood the test of time in terms of artistic endeavour! Our friendship has survived many decades even if the letter-writing hasn’t. There are other friends who wrote me small notes on the back of Dairy Milk chocolate wrappers while there was one who sent me evidence of an ongoing orange peel fight in his dormitory while he was writing to me!

In spite of all its drawbacks, letter writing scores over calls and text messages in a few ways. One, it requires effort and therefore, immediately signifies value. To receive a letter means you are cherished. Who’s opposed to that?

Another notch in their favour is that letters to family and close friends can act almost as journals, helping you process events and emotions and are signposts of a life lived.

There is also the tactile aspect of a letter. It’s something you can hold in your hand, place under your pillow and find in a shoebox years later. You can’t say the same about emails. Writer, journalist and media advisor, Liz Carpenter had a similar view.

“What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can’t reread a phone call.”

The reasonable requirement to indulge in the purchase of unreasonable amounts of stationery is another perk bestowed by letters on their writers! I love buying stationery and so, letter paper and envelopes used to count as essential goods. Sadly, now that I don’t write any letters, it’s been years since I bought air-mail paper. The gauze-like paper in pastel shades was a favourite of mine. I’m not sure if it’s even available anymore.

I admit that letter-writing is only a medium of communication and was bound to be replaced by more efficient forms. However, dig a little deeper and you see that each medium brings its own message, language and vibe. For instance, a letter allows for perspective and a more relaxed, thoughtful mood while texting is often about short forms and getting straight to the point.

Not all letter-writing is that different from text messages though. I wrote my first letter at the grand old age of three, on a piece of lined paper torn out of a notebook. It was posted along with my brother’s letter to our father who was away for a few months on a military exercise.

My letter was a study in brevity—just half the English alphabet, 2 letters of the Hindi alphabet and the numbers 1, 2, 3. My brother’s letter was a little more prolific with a few sentences thrown in and a demand for a gift. These epistolary masterpieces, dear reader, were saved by our father for their obvious emotional appeal, if not literary brilliance!

The age of letters is well-past but I’m hoping against hope for a revival – a Renaissance of the Letterati, if you will. The best way to go about it, I suppose, would be to put pen to paper and get started. But first, let me buy a letter pad!

With love,

Ninay