Today, I received a handwritten letter from a dear friend from India and it made my day and my week. I have already read it like ten times already and I cannot help but smile everytime I do it. We are in regular touch through emails and the amazing other online channels but it was something about that hand-written note that added a joyous spark to my day.

I am a very old fashioned when it comes to writing, still prefer the penning down by hand. Truly love the connection and the friction between pen and the paper, as the words flow while my hand and my mind sing a tune in harmony. The handwriting, the impression on the virgin paper (even on the leaf below the leaf) speaks of the energy with which the note was written. Akin to the brushstroke of a painter, the carvings of a sculptor, the paper stands as a witness to the emotion, thoughts, attitude and THE moment which cannot be re-created, ever!. One can try to erase what was once written on a virgin piece of paper, but cannot completely undo the writing…the mark remains! The cuts and strikethroughs take you through a journey of thoughts that the author went through as he/she penned down those words, unlike a well formatted note in word processors which just shows you the final form….and that record of journey to me to me is completeness. You can call it raw, but it is complete.

In today’s reality of very fast world and time pressures, it is impractical to limit yourself to writing on paper, but I try to come back to it as often as I can. Most of what I write remains on paper (explains why my blog is still so very empty), but whenever I read those sheets the whole thing comes back to me alive…just the way I wrote it, felt it, created it….. It is original, unprocessed, unchanged, untampered…it is as real it can be or ever will be. Even this note was written first on the paper and I thought of transferring it online to my blog and I can tell you, although the words are the same – some undefinable aspect of this short note still remains on that very paper – which is why this is complete yet very incomplete.

Have not written to some dear one in a long time? Leave your laptop/ipad for a bit, pick up a piece of paper and create the magic. The wait, the postal delay…everything will be worth it and your friend will relive the moment exactly as you created it.

Cheers ooops Chillies :)

Akanksha

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