Dying art of letter writing

World postal day is celebrated on 9th October. I was not even aware such a celebration takes place world wide each year. I came across FM radio news about world postal day while driving to office,that's when i decided to post a blog.

People in India and world over used either horse or foot post,before the modern postal service was established by British East India Company in 1764.

30 years back the most common mode of communication was postal services in the India(other than metro's). People mainly used postal services for business purpose and communicating with people leaving in far of place. People used to wait for a mails and rejoice when received mails from the dear ones. I still remember people (including my grand father and father) used to hang the received mails in one corner of the room.There are many places around the world where postal service in the only mode of communication.

Writing a letter is an art,which was practiced by great people(Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda) to name a few. They used to communicate with the followers through mails. Postal service played a important role in the Indian Independence struggle, but sadly never highlighted in any articles. There are many songs dedicated to the postal services in the Indian films.

Letter writing was taught in the school as the integral part of the course. Competition were conducted on regular basis at all levels(National,State,District). School kids used to practice writing mails religiously.

Writing mails started dwindling with the advances in other modes of communication(computer and mobile phones) which are quicker and easier. The advances in computers and mobiles has changed the way we communicate with people. They use voice calls,SMS, emails,social networking etc. for communication,which are faster and efficient. But this have given rise to more informal way of communicating. Writing emails/sms/tweets are not governed by a set of rules,unlike letter writing.

Young generation doesn't know the importance of the letter writing. Whenever i come across people struggling to write mails, i pity them because they were never taught how to write mails. It is the responsibility of schools and parents to teach their kids the importance and art of letter writing. It is the responsibility of people who have learnt the letter writing skills,should practice and encourage others to follow.

In addition to postal services, the post office provide telephone and telegraph services. Before STD came into existence, people used to make long distance call through trunk call. I remember i used to wait for long hours to make a call (trunk call) to my father from post office. Then STD booth(kiosk) came into existence and the telephone services slowly moved out of the post office.

I end this blog with the hope that art of writing would survive and flourish in coming days.