A few days back, me and my mother were doing the usual weekend cleaning. I was cleaning the cabinet which hadn't been touched for years, It used to be the cabinet where my mom used to keep her stuff like old books, important papers etc. I started taking out the yellowed papers and files, they were full of dust, none of the folders looked important, they just looked old and brittle. I wondered why my mom hadn't disposed them off all this while, Suddenly a photograph fell out of one of the folders, I picked it up, and saw, the
picture of a young girl of 6-7 years... I checked the folder from which it fell out, And I found a couple of letters inside the folder..I started reading them, by the time I finished reading the last letter, my eyes were brimming with tears.It seems like letters have become extinct today, in spite of letter-writing being taught in schools, letter writing has completely been abandoned lately. Email, mobile, messaging has taken the place of letters. Even in rural areas people are using mobiles in place of letters. But the question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Emails, definitely are more convenient, fast and smart than letters but they cannot take the place of letters. Letters are wonderful, They are not just pieces of paper they are pieces of memory, they contain feelings of the writer, unlike emails, letters are things that are more than just messages. How many emails do you have which you consider more precious than anything else? I doubt you have any such email in your account, you know why? because even though email
is more convenient it cannot be written with the same emotions and feelings come while writing letters. Most of the emails that people sent contain trivial stuff like, ''How are you doing?'' ''How's your health? etc. But letters even though are time consuming and slow, they are things which can be kept and cherished forever. Its a shame that people have forgotten how to write letters nowadays, but they dont realize what they are missing on, they are missing the joy of writing, they are missing the anticipation of receiving, they are missing the bliss of reading. I think the lost art of letter writing needs to be revived. And there is no other way to do this other than getting into the habit of writing letters and experience the feel of it yourself. If you are not able to get into this practice we should atleast encourage out kids to do it. If you think, what is the use of this practice other than emotional satisfaction or momentary joy, just think about why, letter writing is being practiced in schools, why are kids taught letter- writing formats, and you should get your answer. If you still think that email is a good replacement for letters, well, then you have never experienced the joy of reading an old found letter in an old cabinet.About the cabinet part I wrote in the front paragraph, well, it wasn't true, I wrote it just for effect, but nonetheless, It complimented my article so I wrote it. But things like that do happen, so it wasn't completely a lie.