Handwritten letters were an art form; their absence is being missed

In these days of WhatsApp and emails, the art of letter writing has almost died out. There are probably very few people who have the ability to write well composed letters using a beautiful handwriting style. Some among the older generations may still have the touch but it will be a Herculean task to find one such person among the younger lot.

Although we can now talk to loved ones and even make video calls on our phones, a few decades ago, letters played a very important role and they had their own charm. Many parents would preserve touching letters from their children who may be living far away. At times, when the aged hearts were feeling lonely and forgotten, the letters and photos would be brought out of the folder and re-read and reviewed again and again.

Now, even if one gets an email or a WhatsApp message from a son or daughter, it is soon drowned in the tsunami of information and messages that hit our phones every day. Within a few days, that cherished message conveying love and respect, can no longer be traced. The tide of messages and videos has carried it away forever. Old people are badly affected because many of them are not tech savvy enough, and do not know how to save the important messages.

No beauty

Besides WhatsApp messages are usually curt and there is no beauty, neither in the writing style nor in the exchange of conversation. A typical opening line may be like this: “How R U”. To this reply may be: “M OK”. Where is the beauty of language, style, expression or imagination if one writes like this?

If a child gets used to this form of communication, then he or she will never be able to write well. The value of good literature will not be understood. The child will not even be able to appreciate the choice of words and expressions used by a poet or author. The vast wealth of good literature will diminish. Across the whole world, literature began with letters and storytelling. Many well known authors began first by writing letters when they were young.

One of the first well known examples of a prolific letter writer was Princess Atoosa, daughter of Cyrus the Great, ruler of Persia. In a later period, giants of literature such as Rabindranath Tagore, Saratchandra, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen, were said to have written hundreds of superbly crafted letters to their family and friends.

Good writing indicates culture

A well-written letter wherein the writer adheres to the traditional grammar and spelling and uses his or her imagination to form the sentences in an attractive manner indicates a high level of etiquette and culture. Kings and noblemen of the past used to take as much pride in their writing skills as they did in their military prowess.

Throughout the course of human history, letters have played an important role in the progress of mankind. They also enabled people to stay emotionally and deeply connected.

Nehru’s informative letters

Between 1930 and 1933, when Jawaharlal Nehru was imprisoned by the British Raj in different jails in Uttar Pradesh (then called United Provinces), he wrote almost 200 letters to his beloved daughter Indira. She was then in her teens and Nehru was worried about how her education was progressing during his absence from home.

Through his letters Nehru wrote to Indira about world history and Indian history. He put in all the information that a young girl would need to understand the great heritage and culture of India, and also have a good understanding of how the world had developed over the centuries. He was not given any library facility and had to rely solely on his own vast knowledge to educate his daughter.

He also expressed his sorrow that he could not be present on her birthdays and many other personal feelings. Those letters were later collected and published. They formed the basis for Nehru’s famous book titled Glimpses Of World History. The amount of information packed within those pages is amazing, especially since the author was writing from a jail cell and using only his own powers of memory to write about thousands of years of history.

Evidence of deep love

If one reads the book, one can also see the father’s deep love for his daughter and his concern for her education due to which he undertook this immense task of compiling world history. Expert historians across the world have hailed the book as one of the first attempts at historiography from a non-European angle.

The decline in letter writing is evident in the fact that the Indian Postal Service is worried about the rapid reduction in the number of letters that it has to deliver. According to one report published in the Times of India, the Chief Post Master of Patna revealed that the delivery is declining at the rate of 3 percent every year.

But while for the postal services, it is a matter of financial loss, for the public it is a loss of many significant and intangible things such as an emotional connection between family members and friends as well as the art of writing lucidly and beautifully. The German philosopher and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said, “Letters are the most significant legacy that any human can leave behind for posterity to learn from and cherish.”