The letter is the only format of exploring letters and emotions and still keep it limited between us. Now we have technology - email and messengers but nothing is as fascinating as a letter. Take , for instance , in a jest we talk and tease our friends for love letters which are not written or if written , not sent to other party and when it got into hands of us :-) (pyar ka punchnama :-)) .I am resisting my temptetions to tell some stories. Of course I have never written one . But have you heard ever like lovemail or lovemessenger.Obviously not, so letter is still very important where we can talk freely. Messenger is like playing mindgames and always pretending to be cool version of yourself, whereas mails are very formal in tone.
So why are we talking about all this. Just last night I was reading a book and in which two persons communicate through letters and yet they never met. This is now possible with the Internet but one or two centuries back , can you imagine how many days and months had to wait. Of course these two persons were eminent in their fields so have heard of each other and since being privileged their letters must have recieved as fast as possible. So these letters, no need of specifics, are historically relevant and important. As I don't read much , I am surprised to the fact that these persons actually communicated, wow! And still I think while reconstructing history letters are not given their due , especially in the mainstream. Maybe historians know better. But what I want to highlight is amount of learning we get through these letters is simply phenomenal. If learning that is underatanding the new things is not the purpose of history then what is??
I remember last time I wrote a letter was in childhood, of course we still write these in exams but not outside of it anymore. Yes , some of us may still write to government, officials, editors but again they by nature are formal. We used to write to our friends and families , warmth of those feelings cannot be expressed in letters but a bit in the letter :-)
And maybe when you are cleaning and renewing your house for upcoming Dasshera(Dasara- Vijayadashmi) if you found one or bunch of these letters wired ( to get a feel- तारेत खोसलेले पत्रं ) , read them, caress them they are real treasures!
So why are we talking about all this. Just last night I was reading a book and in which two persons communicate through letters and yet they never met. This is now possible with the Internet but one or two centuries back , can you imagine how many days and months had to wait. Of course these two persons were eminent in their fields so have heard of each other and since being privileged their letters must have recieved as fast as possible. So these letters, no need of specifics, are historically relevant and important. As I don't read much , I am surprised to the fact that these persons actually communicated, wow! And still I think while reconstructing history letters are not given their due , especially in the mainstream. Maybe historians know better. But what I want to highlight is amount of learning we get through these letters is simply phenomenal. If learning that is underatanding the new things is not the purpose of history then what is??
I remember last time I wrote a letter was in childhood, of course we still write these in exams but not outside of it anymore. Yes , some of us may still write to government, officials, editors but again they by nature are formal. We used to write to our friends and families , warmth of those feelings cannot be expressed in letters but a bit in the letter :-)
And maybe when you are cleaning and renewing your house for upcoming Dasshera(Dasara- Vijayadashmi) if you found one or bunch of these letters wired ( to get a feel- तारेत खोसलेले पत्रं ) , read them, caress them they are real treasures!
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