Do People Still Make Pen-Friends?

The days of hand-written letters seem to be over. Gone are those days of waiting for the postman or checking the letter box, gone are the days of beautiful writings and gone are the days of beautiful letter pads.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, making pen- friends was a craze. I too had share of mine and those pen-friendships originated over some hobbies like collecting stamps or writing poems or captions or the love for a game. Some of the children’s or teenage magazines had these contests where you could send a poem, or a joke and the magazine would publish the best ones, each month.

Pen-friendship was sort of encouraged to develop the art of writing, knowing the unknown and making new connections and for sharing. It was a blessing for the shy ones for here they could express themselves without having to venture much into the social setting and norms.

During my graduation days, I happen to win the second prize in a TV contest. My address had flashed on the TV screen and in those few minutes, I don’t know how many people had copied my address. Yes, I have to agree that the address was short but the letters I received after that would suggest that people were actually glued to the TV set.

Some of those so called friendships were one-two letters old and some a little longer. Exchanges about hobbies, about books and games were the subjects mostly but some personal exchanges about family and friends were not uncommon either.

Once I received one of those letters and I told my folks that it was from a pen-friend. A family elderly visiting us then had asked if the letter was from a girl or a boy. And when I had told him that it was a boy, he asked me if I really needed to befriend a boy miles away, and when I knew nothing about him. Well, I knew the elderly person meant well and I also knew what I could handle so I was unperturbed. The exchanges had continued for a while but then life’s other priorities take over and what remains of those friendships are those letters, the dates and the events. In my case, those are also gone when we had to discard stuff during a shifting.

Coming back to now, there are FB friendships and there are Twitter friendships. Not all we know on FB or Twitter are real-life friends but we connect with many on these social platforms based on our mutual interests. Most of those don’t last either but some of them do.

Over the past few years, I have connected with a few people out of nowhere, or from a random thread on favourite books or the connect with a place so dear to your heart. Strangely enough, these friendships are no less than real friendships and the connect stronger and mature.

These days are days of instant replies, short answers, for example saying ‘k’ if you want to say ‘ok’ or ‘gm’ for ‘Good Morning’. While learning these acronyms is also fun, getting an instant reply feels real, lost are the days of waiting for that letter to arrive, the excitement to read and the joy of reading a few lines over and over again.