Ah, The Joy Of Writing Letters!

I have this fascination for ‘Pen-Pal’ from as long as I can remember.

I still remember the day when my best friend from first grade moved to a different school. I sweetly got her home address and had it memorized so we can be in touch with letters.

I used to send festive greeting cards to my friends promptly for every festive occasion. By that, I don’t mean the e-cards but hand written cards with my personalized message in my crazy handwriting, carefully slid inside an envelope and stamped with so much excitement. My grandfather would then take me to the local post office and my happiness would know no bounds when I drop the envelopes into the box.

And then slowly, e-cards became the thing of the moment and of course, I wanted to catch up with the trend. Now, I very much doubt if anyone even sends e-cards (except for my mother in law who promptly sends me e-cards for all special occasions and one of my aunt who does the same.) E-cards and e-mails have been replaced by instant messaging services where you get responses with a blink of an eye. No points for guessing but yes, now instant messaging is how I to talk to my family and friends. 

However, I always find sending letters and waiting for responses more exciting. Sadly, I do not write physical letters anymore. But I do have a pen pal to whom I send emails regularly. Although it cannot compensate for the physical letter, that is the only 'make-do situation' I can be happy about as of now.

My pen pal is around 65 years young. He is my relative and surprisingly, I met him for the first time in a wedding only when i was about 25 years old. Sadly, we did not get to meet after that till date. It was just one meeting but that was enough for our friendship to blossom! We send each other emails regularly, not just one liners but lengthy emails that reminds me of physical letters on paper.

Maybe it is his intelligence. Maybe it is his witty sense of humor. Maybe it is the fact that he reminds me of my grandfather who I miss so dearly. Maybe it is any of these or maybe it is something else, but every time I receive an email from him, it brings a smile to my face and instantly brightens my day.

Ah, the joy of writing letters to your loved ones and waiting eagerly for theirs!