PenPal
In the era of WhatsApp, messenger and PayPal, I only saw the postman coming to deliver bills or letters from the bank to my house. Of Course the Amazon delivery guy comes much more often. The postman also does collect to his festival bonus.
My mother tells me about her childhood when they used to write letters and wait for their replies. In the current version of WhatsApp, I come at unease when people don’t get the double blue ticks fifteen minutes after I have sent the message! In times that ‘last seen at..’ feature confirms the well-being of a person, I really can’t believe the patience people once had. In a way, that world had remained completely oblivious to me.
In my daily browsing through some forums, I came across someone with whom I clicked at once. We both had kept false online names based on our respective favourite characters from the same fandom. We both were of the same age and shared several more interests. In a couple of days, we became really good friends.
I had returned from school and was checking my online messages that I got a ping from my new friend. We both talked about our day and then she asked me for my address. It seemed a little odd but I did share my address. For the next couple of days, we kept talking like we did before. Once or twice I felt a little scared about sharing my address. After the first few days I even forgot it.
Later one day when I came back from school, my mother told me that I had got a mail. This was one of the firsts since I never got any posts. I want to my room and quickly opened the letter. It was from my friend. It was such a happy feeling – I had no idea getting mail feels better than getting email. I didn’t know how much I had anticipated this moment. I was too eager to read what was inside that letter. I opened it without even changing my school uniform and read. My mom came to ask me to come to lunch and asked me about the letter. I told her about my friend. After lunch I took out the best notepad that I had, which is definitely a big deal for a fifth grader, and then sat down to write back to my friend. In her letter she had mentioned about the last vacation that she had taken to Agra. I had never been to see the Taj Mahal and so I replied with the last place that I had visited.
Having finished the letter, I was not sure how it would go to post. I had seen those red post-boxes and I also knew that post offices were there but converting a notepad paper to a letter, was something I didn’t know. Usually I had seen only small brown envelops in mail whenever I had seen them on media. My big sheet would never be folded enough to be that small. Next morning, I went to my dad and told him my problem. He told me that I could send it any envelope as long as the stamps and weight is right. He said he would send my letter for me and for future, he would bring me a supply of envelopes and stamps.
That evening I told my friend online that I got her letter. She told me her one secret wish – she always wanted a pen-pal. When we started talking, she thought that she would want to try that with me. Thus she wrote to me. She asked me not to discuss those letters online for it would take out the thrill from those letters. I never really understood then but over the course of the next couple of weeks, I understood it much better.
Every nine-ten days, I would get a letter from my friend. We would write anything random. I would reply to her with my experiences. Every time when I hold that sealed envelope in my hands, I feel so happy. There is a happy anticipation that builds up that makes the small letter so special. There was also this long wait between getting two subsequent letters. Sometimes when the next letter would not come for fifteen days or more, I would become restless.
Days passed and with time we both moved from school to college. Life became busy. We became lost in our new lives and lots of new responsibilities. One thing however that remains is our letters. They are not as frequent as they once used to be. Usually now I get a letter a month or even less. However even in the fifteen minutes of my life that I steal every month to read a letter and write a response, are precious. Those fifteen minutes teach me to live outside the digital world. Those fifteen minutes teach me to value friendship. Those fifteen minutes teach me patience. Many times people around me ask why don’t I chose a more faster way of communication? As promised I didn’t discuss the letters with my friend again but as far as I am concerned, I like it this way better. I find it much more real than all the emails and texts that I have received. It feels happier than checking the last seen status of my crush. And it definitely feels much better knowing that probably someone else awaits my letters with just so much anticipation as I do for theirs.
