When letter writing was an exciting event

When we were children, a good deal of time was spent on reading and writing letters. The task involved a lot of preparation, in terms of composing one's thoughts, finding the right words, and deciding the proper approach, depending on the addressee. The manner of salutation was also very important such as 'My dear mother', 'Dear Cousin, Respected Sir' etc.

After the body of the letter was completed, one had also to end with one of the expressions 'yours sincerely', 'yours affectionately', 'yours faithfully' or yours truly', depending on the relationship with the person at the other end. When one thought one had finished the letter, and suddenly had an afterthought, one usually added what was known as a 'postscript' or simply a PS.

Many of us are good at formulating our thoughts, and expressing them, in speech. We are however, usually uncomfortable with putting them down in writing. It becomes difficult to condense the atmosphere in which one is, to the concrete word. The writer is paralysed by the demand the letter makes for self – expression. Suddenly the mind goes empty. One suffers from the approximate equivalent, roughly, of what authors go through, called 'a writer's block' or a 'creative slow down or stall'.

One is in a position somewhat similar to the lady in the novel by Horace Walpole, the 18th century historian - writer, who says, "I write to you because I have nothing to do: I finish because I have nothing to say." A bit like the 'stage fright', which some people suffer from, I have seen the most confident of people breaking into a sweat, with their legs turning to jelly and their throats going dry, when faced with an audience to address. It is even worse for debutant artists.

But with practice, and with the passage of time, one overcomes that initial indecision, and comes to terms with the letter writing art. When letters were the predominant means of communication, they could be written, and sent, in a variety of ways. The cheapest, and simplest, was the 'post card', followed by, the 'inland letter' which could be sealed off after the job was completed. Then came the envelope, into which went the paper on which one had written the letter, duly folded.

And, if one wanted the letter to go by Air Mail (delivery was usually by road, rail or ship those days), one incurred the extra cost of a few more stamps and marked the envelope 'express delivery'. News of urgent nature arrived in the form of 'telegram' and, with the advent of the telephone, came the 'Phonogram' was followed by 'post copy' (usually in government offices) in confirmation of the contents. When you wanted to be sure that somebody had received a document or a parcel, you sent it by 'registered post' and, to make assurance doubly sure (as Shakespeare would have put it), with 'acknowledgement due' to boot.

Time was, when writing a letter was an event, so expensive it was. So much so, indeed, that only the affluent could indulge in that luxury. Not everyone was a Charles Lamb, or Lord Byron, who could afford a life of leisurely pace conducive to the art of 'composing', and not 'writing', letters. The arrival, in 17th century England, of the phenomenon of the 'penny post' changed all that. Delivery of letters became affordable and, consequently, the attention and energy that went into writing them.

The last straw on the back of the 'letter camel', the 'coup de grace' as it were, has come in the shape of the arrival of the digital age, bringing with it emails, SMSs, and WhatsApp. As Thomas Carlyle had foretold, people no longer bother to write good letters as these developments have completed the destruction of the art of letter. Gone are the personal touch, the struggle to find the 'mot juste', and the subtle nuances of carefully chosen phrase and idiom.

What was a work of art has yielded place a progeny that is direct to the point of being crude, and devoid of any personal touch. Emphasis has shifted to a set of standardised acronyms. Just imagine expressions such as 'OMG', 'ILU' and 'BTW' finding place in letters of the 20th century!

The secret of letter – writing is 'intimate triviality' to quote A.G. Gardiner. He continues that one must approach the job in the 'lightest and 'most casual' way, being personal, not abstract. An orderly and methodical approach, he says, will probably produce a good essay, not a letter. The recipient should see you, hear you see and know what you are about, as John Keats, the legendary English poet, felt. A letter, in other words, as Keats went on to add annihilates distance and preserves one's presence, not absence.

I remember some amusing experiences I had with letters written to me by my relatives. One of my maternal uncles, for example, had a quaint habit of writing in an inland letter starting from the wrong end. One had to be very careful not to tear it open in the wrong way, lest one lose the contents. Then there was this grandfather of mine, to whom I had written earlier, informing him of my having joined in the branch of the State Bank of India at Machilipatnam, as a Probationary Officer.

He was a retired headmaster of schools, and promptly wrote back to me, (in a postcard, mind you, which was read by everyone in the branch before it reached my hands!) correcting my spelling of the word Probationary – as I had used an 'e' in place of the 'a'! I also remember this strange feeling of uncertainty I used to have, when I wrote to my friends serving in the armed forces doing duty at the front, I simply address the letters care of 56 APO, and wondering whether they had in fact, reached the destinations at all.

I also received, like I am sure most of you have, letters requesting that copies of the same be sent to a designated number of other friends or relatives, promising a substantial incentive if that was done and, also accompanied by an indication that dire consequences, might follow, if it wasn't. Out of either fear or temptation I did do that for quite some time before I decided that it was not worth my while.

(The writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh) 

(The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of The Hans India)