Here’s a super-rare sight. Seated on a public bench, a citizen is writing manually. That is, she is writing with her hand, using a pen and paper. The paper is placed for support on a hardbound book, which happens to be the anniversary edition of Dharamvir Bharati’s novel Gunahon Ka Devta.
Parthivi says she often writes letters.
Can this law student be a part of some luddite society whose members write letters to each other to recreate the vanished fashions?
No. Parthivi simply writes handwritten letters to friends. (Although she doesn’t receive handwritten replies as often.)
In any case, penning a long letter by hand is almost extinct. The age of mobile phones has re-wired our writing fingers. Acclimatised into pressing the screen buttons, they have lost their intimacy with the shape of alphabet curves. Today, the act of drawing a ‘z’, or a ‘q’, or a ‘g’ demands a conscious effort, which frequently fails to keep pace with the rapid speed of our thoughts dictating the words.
Parthivi has taken a stance. “When I write with hand, I fully immerse myself in the moment, capturing the feelings and intentions behind my words without the pressure of a screen, or the urgency of instant messaging.”
Since letter writing might be an unfamiliar act to those born after the launch of yahoo mail in 1997 (and of gmail in 2004), Parthivi graciously agrees, for their sake, to list the steps of her handwritten correspondence. She first writes her letter in black ink on a white page; she then folds the page, inserting it into an envelope on the back of which she writes the recipient’s address; she finally heads to the neighbourhood post office, dispatching the letter through a registered speed-post.
“I feel a handwritten letter has something tangible that holds a piece of me within, making it more meaningful and lasting that somebody can cherish. I have observed that the person receiving my handwritten letter feels very much loved.”
Parthivi gives a glimpse of her letter-in-progress. The lines contain a mix of English and Hindi, the Hindi phrases too are penned in English script. The small scrawl on the page’s top right corner notes the place of writing. The place incidentally happens to be just the perfect site in Delhi to compose a handwritten letter–the picturesque Lodhi Garden.
