Wednesday 14 November 2012

Where are the letters I wrote? Where are the letters that were written to me?

In a few weeks' time, I will have a new address. The feeling is mixed. How will my new address sound and will it have a nice ring to it? I hope you get the drift! Sometimes, addresses do have a nice ring, like say, Sugar Land, Texas or Palli Hill, Bandra or say, Poes Garden or even Lake Avenue. I could go on about sweet sounding addresses which sound nice and read nice. But however nice and sweet it may sound, it is sad that some addresses never receive letters promptly. Well, my letters are such and so are the letters written to me by dear friends. I have come to the conclusion that my address does not sound and read well because I have lost precious letters in transit. What happens to the lost letters, anyway?

Who benefits from my lost letters? Where are they? Are they struck in some old and rusty post-office or have they been dumped in some junkyard?



When I was about ten years old, there was a case in the newspaper which reported of a post-woman who bundled up all the letters and sunk them in the common water tank. Ah, what was wrong with her? How can she so mindlessly dump messages of love, success, failure, birth, death, wedding, crush and others into the water tank? When I think of my lost letters, I think of that post-woman. My beautiful purple ink would have been lost in water. Death of letters by water! I shudder to think of my letters meeting such a fate. That's about my letters. What about the letters that were posted to me? I am yet to receive five letters and they were written long ago, sometime in August or September. I took a conscious decision to avoid some friends on Facebook and communicate only through letters. Alas! I broke my self-imposed vow and inquired about the letters. The letters, they say, were posted long ago. Missing in Action/Transit?

Well, is someone savouring my letters? Are they reading it and throwing them away? I am not able to put my finger on any valid reason. Should I blame the inefficient postal system in India? As it is, the news is pretty stale when I receive the letter and yet I relish the joy of the letter but now that small joy has been snatched away from me. Where are the letters I wrote? Where are the letters that were written to me?

I believe that I am one of those rare species from another era who still writes (W.R.I.T.E.S) letters but everything seems against me.

And inspite of all, I am still an optimist one . . . perhaps another rare trait, in these days of pessimism and whining. I wait for my letters. And, please don't write any letters to me until I send you my new address.

Will you write to me and shall I reply.

Image: Internet

15 comments:

  1. What was wrong with that post woman? Keeping the letters from their rightful owners! Writing letters in today's world is such a sweet and rare gesture, please do keep the tradition alive. Loved your post, Susan...

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  2. Yeah really. But luckily for me all the letters got delivered. But do people write letters anymore?? Few years back I wrote lot of letters to friends and most of them 'wrote' back. I still have those. And i think I will have them forever. Letters are precious and dont worry Susan, your new address will surely have some nice ring to it. :-) Nice one

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  3. Apppada.. The first post of yours I could understand.. I could feel and so on..

    Its really a great feel when the postman knocks.. with the inland covers with purple inked feelings... cant be described!

    Yes of course missing letters during such transits are unavoidable!

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  4. oy...i owe you a letter...smiles...i started writing it and i dont know what happened....i have the one from you in my nightstand...the boys marveled at it as well....

    pleas email me your new address and i will write....

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  5. Now that we're going to be closer, I hope I get your letters! So sad to have them go MIA!

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  6. So glad you're optimistic Susan. I'm not a letter writer, so I won't promise to write. But, perhaps your new address will be like a magnet to letters and you'll even get the ones undelivered to other people.

    I'm glad to be back reading your thoughts Susan. Take care and I hope your move goes smoothly and you like your new home.

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  7. I remember when we moved about four years ago we couldn't take everything with us and I looked and looked and looked for this box of old letters and cards I had stored but was unable to find it before we had to move. I sometimes think back at the letters, written from friends who have moved on , or have died like my friend in high school who died of cancer, who are just memories now. Oh well..I guess that's the way things are..but I can certainly relate. It stinks to lose letters..especially in transit when you don't even get the chance to read them yet.

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  8. Months ago, I wrote a post about the dying art of letter writing. I'm so glad to hear you've resurrected this and do hope those lost letters will somehow find their way to you, Susan.
    Good luck, too, with your move.
    Blessings to you!

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  9. It's been ages since I wrote a letter, or should I say wrote...period. With computers, mobiles & internet taking over our lives, the postman sounds like from a distant era! Good to hear that people still write to each other and it's indeed sad to hear abt the inefficiency in postal deliveries - of letters missing in transit!

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  10. I did a similar post a few months back on the dieing art of letter writing , how no one writes anymore an the nostalgia assocaited with the whole of it ..

    Well I do hope the person who got the letters sends them back to you somehow or by some miracle is a blog writer and reads this :)

    I also got to know that my house number was quiet nice it is 143 .. I did not have a clue till i put a picture of the front door and all the comments were mentioing how good the number is :)

    Bikram's

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  11. Lost mail go to a place called The Dead Letter Office (D.L.O):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_letter_office At least in the U.S. Not sure if there is a world wide D.L.O. A book called The Great and Secret Show by one of my favorite authors Clive Barker was the first I'd been introduced to The D.L.O.

    I know what you mean about addresses that have a nice ring to them and addresses that don't. We have some street names here along southern, Connecticut in the U.S. that are really odd. One town to the north east of Madison is Killingworth. A couple of roads in Killingworth have names that really make you happy if you don't live there:
    Roast Meat Hill
    http://durham.patch.com/articles/roast-meat-hill#photo-8077413

    Skunk Misery. The names alone make me happy I decided to reside in Madison. LoL.
    --
    Chris

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  12. You know Susan I have a box full of such letters..though no one writes to me any more the old memories are so beautiful that I simply cannot do away with them.Some people find it crazy but I am happy with that as it reminds Me of many good things :)

    And yes...I will write to you..give me your address please!

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  13. Though we live in the tech era and every bit of news/views reaches in a flash via SMS, Messengers, emails, Facebook etc but nothing beats the fun and joy of receiving a written letter. After so many years, we are back to writing and receiving letters as our sonny boy is in a boarding school and it is mandatory for him (and us) to write letters every Monday. And yes there are many letters of his which dont reach us and we fret and harass our building guards for our missing letters. I guess, our postal system is to be blamed!
    Wishing you the very best at your new address. Hope you get all the letters there promptly! :)

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  14. I used to religiously write letters to my mom and others too. I continued diligently until my mom could write no more. I also stopped writing to others. Technology took over and it is SMS, e-mail or chat messages today. I miss those days.

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