We can do them Old-School

Mother Earth likes to observe the gradually changing landscape of the way we communicate.

We love doing Whatsapp so much. Then there is FB messenger. Our touch-hungry finger-tips are ever in affinity to touch the six inch screen of our smartphone.

Some time back, like a decade ago, we loved doing SMS. We rushed to the small shop by the footpath, quickly recharge our Nokias with a 100 SMS per day pack. Why, even so many beautiful love stories blossomed by exchange of SMS. That was its Power of attraction.

Also there was, rather is, of course the email. What a marvellous invention. You've Got Mail was made on the foundation of email. Pleasant love story, is not it !

A further peering into the past, we see some delightful yet almost now-obsolete technologies of communicating. It would be better if I write Artistic format rather than Technologies. Not the Painting and Sculpturing formats but some simple and amazing means to spread love.

The other day, on a sudden discussion on random topics with my Mom, we revived an old discussion about how her generation communicated during their young days. And, soon, I remembered those remarkable methods to communicate.

Image: Fanpop

The first was, Patra bandhu (Pen-Friend). 

People of yore used to publish their name and address in popular monthly magazines or weekly journals. The idea was that, if a reader gets interested in communicating with a person, he was able to do so by noting his basic information. One would start by writing a letter to the other. The other would receive it, and reply. And hence, a conversation would start between them. 

But there is a catch. 

Unlike present day, where, in fraction of a second we send and receive messages, this was rather at the pace of a snail. A letter used to take a week to get to the other person. He would read it, then write her reply, introducing herself and her like and dislikes. Then she would put the letter in an envelope, paste the stamps and drop it in a letterbox. 

The postman would collect letter by end of the day. The next day, in the post office, people would sort out the letters, stamp it, approve it, record it in long binding-registers, oh ! what not (a very long process but of course that was the only way then) ! Finally, they post it to the other end. The sender would receive his reply in another 10 days. in total, say of around 15-25 days. The cycle would repeat. 

Read, Write, Post, Repeat !

Read, write, Post, Repeat !

Yet, there was a thing to this way of communicating. Even though it took months, there developed a friendship between two complete strangers, who chanced upon a magazine, and became pen-friends for life. Yes, for life. Some, if possible and time allowed,  met each other after decades. Some even fell in love and started a life together. Some became best of friends. Buddies for life. Some did not make it happen in their lifetime to actually meet. But, there always  remained a fulfillment, a satisfaction that one had done communicating to someone without actually meeting them. And that is in itself a great achievement.

This was also a way of finding long forgotten acquaintances. Say we met someone at city during some meeting we attended or in the Sleeper-class Coach inside a train, journeying to some tourist spot. We meet them and chat for the days we are together. Then we say our goodbyes. 

Long years go by, suddenly one of them remembers and does a thing. He writes a column in a magazine or a tabloid. He pours his heart out and writes,  "I want to meet that particular person again, whom I met some 14 years ago in Calcutta and the lost communication thereafter. My name and address are below. If you read this, please reply back. I will be so happy."

And miraculously, if the other human comes upon his column and there, Voila, we have it. The revival of a long lost communication through letters. Behold, who knows, what the future has in stock for them !   

So, what do we see here?

We see that, in some way, there is an analogy to the present context. this old method was similar to sending a Friend Request just like in Facebook ! The receiver accepted the Friend-request. and communication started. One was in hard copy, the other in soft copy !

I yearn to write letters now. In actual, physical, hand-written letters. Sitting on my chair by the window looking towards the rows of trees, with the table lamp on; I want to grab a pen from the pen-stand and place a paper under by hand and start creating feelings. The eclectic to do something like that is overwhelming. It pumps my heartbeat faster.

The second thing is, Binimoi (exchange). Decades back there was not humongous publication of novels and journals. There was limited publications and issues for a book. Books were a rare commodity. Old novels were rarer. You could only find old volumes in public libraries and private collections. 

You wanted to read them, the old writer's old books. There was no new copies for sale in the book store. Your friends didn't have it. Neither your relatives. How did you obtain it?

You did binimoi !

You did an advertisement in a magazine. You wrote that you wish to read this book written some 90 years back by this particular and famous Polish or Danish or Turkish author. If anyone has it, you offer him another precious book of yours in exchange. And if your book interested some bibliophile, he would come forward.

He would write you a letter, offering his book in exchange of yours. Each would book-post his novel to the other. You would fulfill yours reader's desire to have finally read the book. 

This acquaintance sometimes made avid readers exchange their experiences through subsequent letters. Some went further to exchange more books with each other.  There was a literary movement taking place. A beautiful exchange of emotions, thoughts, stories, experience and achievements.

We still can make an analogy to the present, albeit, a small one this method. Now, we can just post in Facebook, asking for a book and may get a reply. But people seldom do that. The present technologies have made almost every book available for easy access to us. 

There is a peculiar feeling if you do it though. You can try it. Obsolete method but certainly can be effective. And also it can be fun. The present generation can try this new "Old-School Method", just like those 80's theme prom nights in high school.

There is so much of beautiful things to do in this world that we will run out of time. A single lifetime is not enough for it. 

So let us make the most out of this lifetime and do what we really want to do. Let's make our hearts bloom and spirits rise high in the world of creation.

I end my thoughts with a quote from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
"The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again."