I miss...

I miss the written word…and I mean writing. Remember, the days when we used to pick up a pen and write on a piece of paper (uh, what’s that again?!!!). I do. Perhaps I miss it because it was such an important part of my childhood, when buying stationery was an event and a delight in itself. Buying text books and note books, new, crisp and waiting to be written. Peering through the dull transparent glass was a row of shiny pens, ball-point, “Pilot” pens and the best of them all “China” Pens – fountain pens which were reserved for use only for our fair note books. I miss going home with all the goodies, pumping ink into the “China” pen and eagerly waiting for the first day of school to dawn, so that the crisp smell of new notebooks and fresh ink, the scratching sound the nib sang out as it created those alphabets could all be experienced once again, a coming of age ritual, the symbol of starting a whole new year, being a year older and presumptuously wiser! I miss holding the pen in my hand trying to write neatly, words spaced appropriately, writing my own hand, unique and utterly identifiable.

I also miss the letters I used to write, in little beige postcards, which cost all of 15 paisa and the only means of communication between me and my cousins. I miss writing my letters with the proper salutation and a closing, date and place at the top right corner. I miss saving an old shoe box to put all my letters away, letters written by cousins and aunts and uncles and everyone else far away thinking of me for a few moments as they write my name. Now I am just an email id, is it yahoo or g-mail? And I miss pulling out those letters every once in a while, feeling them with my hands, playing games with my sister trying to recognize who wrote the letter from the handwriting. I miss having more letters to pull out and read and re-read. I really miss the written word. Will anyone ever write me a long long letter again, write a letter, and not type a mail?