Remember receiving letters by post, opening them and getting that familiar 'paper' scent that seemed as much a part of a letter as its contents? Remember looking at different types of handwriting on letters … some spidery, others full of flamboyant curves?
Miss them?
If you're an avid emailer, you probably do.
'Email's quick!' you console yourself, hoping it makes up for the lack of that special personal touch. But does it?
Savita Mehra considers the love letters written by her boyfriend, now husband, more than a decade ago to be among her most prized possessions: "I read and re-read those letters umpteen times, but every written word casts the same charismatic spell as it did some 16 years ago during our courtship. This is something that I find missing in e-mails."
Would email that you receive from your lover cast a similar spell over you?
Nonetheless, many people, especially of the younger generation, are opting for speed and convenience over a personal, tangible letter.
Engineering student Ameeta Mehta, a hostelite, regularly visits a cyber café to check and send email: "The days when I'd long for letters and wait for the postman at the hostel gate have passed as everybody from friends to close relatives send messages, greeting cards, etc online. So I take time out and log on despite a hectic college schedule."
Dhruv Mohapatra has a way with words. The words however flow only when he taps the keyboard. When it comes to writing on paper, he draws a blank. The content writer for a major dotcom finds it difficult to communicate with his folks in the interiors of Orissa. Lack of Internet access and inability of his family members to operate a computer makes communication a major problem.
Dhruv says regular use of his computer, typing messages on keyboard, sending e-mails and chatting has made him handicapped with a pen: "I find the entire process of writing a letter, dropping it in a post box an extremely painful affair."
Ditto with Rajeev Dutta who says letter writing has become obsolete. Sending and receiving email, chatting online and sending e-cards has become his way of life. With a large number of net pals around that globe, Rajeev spends at least four or five hours on the Net. Any less and he feels he's missing out on something. "It's been four years now and the number of my net pals has increased fourfold", he says, "Some have become my soul mates only through chatting and email. I cannot imagine myself sitting down and writing letters".
But this essay entitled 'Explaining an Insight' reminds us that with email, "all messages look very much alike, and this sameness removes some of the wonder of getting a message in the first place". It makes another point: "Email is also limited by what we can send. Attached files might let us send a copy of a photo, but we wouldn't want to put it in a frame. We will never receive an e-mail care package from home or an e-mail pop-up birthday card. For these more personal things we must still rely on regular mail. Besides, opening old computer files is never as much fun as pulling a musty shoebox out of the closet to browse through old letters and photos."
Perhaps that's why Shruti Sharma, despite being Net savvy, cherishes the idea of writing letters to her close friends. "The personal feeling is missing in messages sent through email," she says. Saveetha Murthy thinks on similar lines. She finds sending e-greetings the most impersonal and mechanical way to display emotions: "I'd rather spend hours at greeting card galleries to choose a perfect one for any occasion than send my wishes across by the click of a mouse," she says, "After that, I decorate the cards with colour pens and stickers, so as soon as the receiver open the cards, he gets to know my feelings through the efforts made".
This write-up on glikbarg.com agrees that e-cards are never going to replace the paper variety, but suggest using the online medium "as an extra way of sending detailed messages to complement the telephone and snail mail".
Postal mail still has many supporters. Respondents in this survey conducted by the Pen Pal Club Network noted many advantages of snail mail. One person felt nice to have letters and look at hand writing and doodles. Another said, "Since you have more time, snail mail is more personal, relaxed, thoughtful and rich". "Snail mail somehow is more like a real person instead of a computer screen," added a third. One of the greatest disadvantages of email correspondence was also highlighted -- Viruses can be sent through email.
If you are still undecided about which mode to use, consider Seema Trivedi who blends the best of both worlds. She scans her handwritten letters and then mails them as attachments.