When the idea of writing letters via the snail mail to virtual friends was shared at BAR, I was quick to grab it. I know how amazing it is to write and receive letters. I used to exchange a lot of letters with cousins and friends when I was in school and college. In fact, had 2 pen friends too. Then, emails entered our lives and the joy of writing on inland letters or picture postcards was pushed back in the cold storage.
Since the last 4 years, these snail mails have entered our lives, once again. And that’s because our son, Aaryan is in a boarding school and it is mandatory for us to exchange letters. So, we are back to reading and writing letters. Aah! The charm, fun, anticipation and excitement of writing and receiving letters.
To be a part of this excitement was something I could not miss, so I took up the Snail Mail Challenge at BAR, without a second thought! Like the sorting hat at Hogwarts, we were randomly assigned friends to whom we had to write a letter. The recipient of the letter would know the sender only on the receipt of the letter! Yes, that would be like double bonanza for the recipient!
One bright sunny day, I received an Air Mail. It was from Eloquent Mind who lives in USA. Seeing a fat envelope, my heart did a happy dance! And it continued to dance and sing too as I opened and read the contents of her letter. There were 2 elements in the envelope. The first one was a long letter consisting of 5 pages written in a neat and beautiful handwriting!! I am sure, she would have got extra marks for good handwriting, at school! In this long missive, EM had shared about her life with family and friends in NJ. It made for a heart warming read. The second part had an instruction, “Please open after reading the letter!” and I did just that! The smile on my face after reading her letter had not dimmed and it brightened a shade more when I opened the second package. Smiling back at me were EM and her husband and their cute lil daughter which was followed by big smiles from their friends too. So, I am the lucky one, who not only knows EM’s real name, but have met her family and friends too!
Now it was my turn to write a letter to a virtual friend. I wrote a letter to Sfurti Sinha! Writing to her was like doing the time travel. As I shared about our life and things we had in common, ( Yes, Mumbai is a link between us), my heart took me back in time, as visuals of love, life, friends, jobs, homes, places gone by flashed in front of my eyes. Writing a letter to Sfurti was a beautiful memory-prompt!
While receiving the letter from EM and writing to Sfurti was a lovely experience, checking whether Sfurti had received my letter was marked with anxiety and panic bouts.
Online tracking record of courier company was not updated and their customer care can be described as one the lousiest one! Sending subtle clues to Sfurti in our Facebook group to acknowledge the receipt of my letter did not work at all. I was getting all restless, and in that state, I sent her an email. And guess what, she did not respond to that too. Her silence clouded my mind with all kinds of weird thoughts, till I could not take it any more and asked Shailaja to check with her. Shailaja was finally able to put a stop to the whirlwind activity that was taking place in my head and shared that dear Sfurti was hospitalized as she had Dengue fever, and thus the delay in acknowledgement from her end! I sent a prayer upwards for her recovery and that I was finally at peace. Usually, the receiver of the letter is filled with anticipation, but here it was reverse anticipation!
After these letters, we connected online and carried forward the conversations from our letters. In all, it was a great feel-happy experience! Thanks Shailaja for a fun challenge!
Do you like writing and receiving snail mail?
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17 Responses
I adore sending and receiving snail mail. There’ something of an art form to writing and receiving letters that aren’t dashed off on the computer. And you usually get or give a fuller story, as you have the time. Sorry to hear about the illness of one of your pen pal partners. Hope that clears up soon.
Oh I love writing letters. In fact a few of us bloggers in Chennai, did that for some time. It is fun, writing and posting and waiting. Some things that the age of instant communication cannot buy 🙂
You are most welcome, Shilpa. I am so happy that so many people connected with one another through this. And how lucky that you know about EM! Wow, that was so sweet of her- to share her identity with you 🙂
I have never stopped sending snail mail and I love receiving it. And I never send a thank you note in any other form except through the MAIL, along with cards,etc.
I totally loved this activity! and I’m so glad you enjoyed it too!
I love snail mail….with the anxiety of it being received or not it brings along 🙂
Thanks to blogging I found two very dear pen-friends 🙂
I used to write long letters before the advent of email. But I continued to use the email too for writing long letters before everyone had cell phones! These days however I prefer less lengthy communications (or only that which is necessary to stay in touch with friends and family), must be a phase of life. I am happy to read however how meaningful this snail mail activity was for you and how it helped you make deeper connections.
Did you write back to EM or not??
I wouldn’t want to be involved in this activity solely because my handwriting is quite pathetic 😛
Destination Infinity
Used to write looooooong letters to some of my classmates after completing school. Not anymore though. Was thinking of participating in this activity initially, but, then didn’t feel like it. Totally out of writing practice! 😛
That was so nice! It’s another proof that letter writing brings people closer. EM, who chooses to stay as EM, has shared her identity with you, just you. I am so jealous. 🙂 😉
I couldn’t participate in the snail mail activity as we were moving around at that time. I like writing and receiving letters. I had done that quite a lot. Though now I don’t write conventional letters, I do write lengthy emails. 🙂 The pleasure is all mine. 🙂
Loved your experience with this Shilpa 🙂 Heartwarming indeed. Interesting isn’t it that whatever we may achieve and be, one of the prime joyful things in life is to make meaningful connections and communicate with them. May your letter-frenships continue to bloom and grow.Hugs.
Writing letters used to be the only mode of communication with friends in olden days. With the advent of Email and whatspp letter writing has become obsolete. But it was interesting to read about EM . Now I wish, I should have given my name for this activity. Nice post.
writing long letters was a joy once upon a time in my life; I had lot of friends, yes I did have pen friends too when I was in school. Later I had cousin who lived in Gujarat; and I used write letters in Tamil mixed with English. Later on there was one uncle very close to me in muscat, and another relative in Dubai and a few priest friends in the US for who I used to write long letters and loved receiving letters by Air mail too…. thanks for bringing beautiful memories back again today…. i am loving it.
5 pages wow! That must have been something! 🙂
I loved this activity, both writing and receiving my snail mail… Planning to keep it going!
Such a fun thing! I remember reading the news of Sfurti’s dengue fever on Facebook! Who knew that some other stuff like your letter was also there in the background! 😀
This Snail Mail Challenge is really awesome!
I admit, I watched it from the sidelines.. and did not participate!
But still, I do hope Shailaja does this more frequently.. It will be great fun <3
Sweet of EM to share that. This snail-mail challenge was an incredibly wonderful thing, wasn’t it? 🙂