If you have read my previous post, you would have known that "The Letter" was written as a competition with my 9 year old neighbor. I ended up winning it and she was petrified looking at the length of the story.
She had written a cute story about winning tickets for her family to visit a theme park in the city.
I enjoyed writing it and I am glad i have such young friends who give me interesting challenges.
In case you are lazy, like me, you can read my story right here.
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It was a regular Monday, you were getting ready for school. Suddenly a letter comes to your house.
In this digital age, the beautiful art of letter-writing has long faded away.Other than a rare advertisement and the regular telephone bills You pick up the envelope, and without even looking, you toss it on the table over a pile of Kannada newspapers that grandmother had neatly stacked up. "Bye Ajji", you scream as you dash towards the door to make it to the school bus on time.
At school you are busy with friends, learning new chapters across subjects, writing surprise tests while that letter still lies on the pile of newspapers wondering why you did not care to notice it.
No. Just kidding. The envelope and its contents do not have emotions. They are just lying there.
Ajji knows the value of letters. It is reminiscent of her younger days when she used to communicate with her family via snail mail. She is nostalgic and picks up the letter. She instantly notices that it is addressed to you.
Never have you received any letter in your life. Never have you even seen an actual snail mail in your life. She is more excited at the prospect of seeing your face on realizing it is addressed to you. Then she resigns at the truth that kids are no longer connected to the world via a piece of paper.
Snail mails have been replaced by e-mails, phone calls have been replaced by messages and family get-togethers happen only on WhatsApp.
3.30pm , as you walk through the doors of your home, exhausted with the rigors of school life, with hunger, for junk food and not for a bowl of curd rice and vegetables, your grandmother hands in the letter, unopened.
"Who is it from?" , you ask with a slight hint of curiosity. "See for yourself" , she casually responds while preparing delicious snacks that you had been craving for.
It smells of aged paper, a light hint of a coffee that was probably spilled on it accidentally.
You open the envelope and you cannot but notice how stunning the writing on the letter is.
It looks vaguely familiar and slowly you start remembering seeing something like that in the past.
Still unsure, but having a strange sense of connection to it already, you start reading on.
It says
"Dear me,
Yes, i said, 'Dear me', because this is you, i mean me writing to me, i mean you.
I know we have a bad memory, so you might not remember writing this, so let me tell you why.
We had a school assignment 3 years back and our teacher had asked us to write a "Time Machine" letter to be delivered after 3 years on this particular date. There are some things i wanted to check with future me.
Do you still love Mathematics? Is Neha still your best friend? Do you still have that beautiful, red top ?
Do you still participate in sports competitions? Do you still trouble Amma by not eating on time?
Do you study well and get good marks in all subjects?
Will you write this letter again to your future self in 3 years ?
I hope you enjoy seeing this letter from your past.
Be awesome like always.
Loads of love,
Me/You
P.S: 3 years ago i was a kid, so Amma has written this on my behalf. Hope you have a beautiful handwriting like her now."
This brings a huge grin on your face and you know the answer to all of those is 'YES'.
____________________________________________________________________________________
She had written a cute story about winning tickets for her family to visit a theme park in the city.
I enjoyed writing it and I am glad i have such young friends who give me interesting challenges.
In case you are lazy, like me, you can read my story right here.
________________________________________________
It was a regular Monday, you were getting ready for school. Suddenly a letter comes to your house.
In this digital age, the beautiful art of letter-writing has long faded away.Other than a rare advertisement and the regular telephone bills You pick up the envelope, and without even looking, you toss it on the table over a pile of Kannada newspapers that grandmother had neatly stacked up. "Bye Ajji", you scream as you dash towards the door to make it to the school bus on time.
At school you are busy with friends, learning new chapters across subjects, writing surprise tests while that letter still lies on the pile of newspapers wondering why you did not care to notice it.
No. Just kidding. The envelope and its contents do not have emotions. They are just lying there.
Ajji knows the value of letters. It is reminiscent of her younger days when she used to communicate with her family via snail mail. She is nostalgic and picks up the letter. She instantly notices that it is addressed to you.
Never have you received any letter in your life. Never have you even seen an actual snail mail in your life. She is more excited at the prospect of seeing your face on realizing it is addressed to you. Then she resigns at the truth that kids are no longer connected to the world via a piece of paper.
Snail mails have been replaced by e-mails, phone calls have been replaced by messages and family get-togethers happen only on WhatsApp.
3.30pm , as you walk through the doors of your home, exhausted with the rigors of school life, with hunger, for junk food and not for a bowl of curd rice and vegetables, your grandmother hands in the letter, unopened.
"Who is it from?" , you ask with a slight hint of curiosity. "See for yourself" , she casually responds while preparing delicious snacks that you had been craving for.
It smells of aged paper, a light hint of a coffee that was probably spilled on it accidentally.
You open the envelope and you cannot but notice how stunning the writing on the letter is.
It looks vaguely familiar and slowly you start remembering seeing something like that in the past.
Still unsure, but having a strange sense of connection to it already, you start reading on.
It says
"Dear me,
Yes, i said, 'Dear me', because this is you, i mean me writing to me, i mean you.
I know we have a bad memory, so you might not remember writing this, so let me tell you why.
We had a school assignment 3 years back and our teacher had asked us to write a "Time Machine" letter to be delivered after 3 years on this particular date. There are some things i wanted to check with future me.
Do you still love Mathematics? Is Neha still your best friend? Do you still have that beautiful, red top ?
Do you still participate in sports competitions? Do you still trouble Amma by not eating on time?
Do you study well and get good marks in all subjects?
Will you write this letter again to your future self in 3 years ?
I hope you enjoy seeing this letter from your past.
Be awesome like always.
Loads of love,
Me/You
P.S: 3 years ago i was a kid, so Amma has written this on my behalf. Hope you have a beautiful handwriting like her now."
This brings a huge grin on your face and you know the answer to all of those is 'YES'.
____________________________________________________________________________________
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