Letters. 

       My earliest memory of writing letters was when I was in class 2 or 3 in Chennai . One inland cover completely covered . Amma got one or two sides.  At first we 3 children and later 4 of us started writing to Appa . 

         Appa was somewhere in the J&K , Ladakh border with China. No we never wrote that நலம், நலமரிய ஆவல்.  So to this day I am unable to add that to my letters. Amma would write in Tamil and we would write in English. Most content too would be provided by Amma. 

           Some relatives visit, new activities. Books we got from the library etc. Appa would give us a list of books to read. Movies to go to. Once when Appa wrote that he would be coming on a visit . I wrote that I was excited about that. I was so proud of my vocabulary. Sad so say spelling not  that good. So Appa’s next letter said, Happy that you are happy , you are excited and not exited.😁 What a long face I put on for a week. 

             Once Appa’s letter had a lot of black stamps to conceal what he had written. So when he arrived on leave we asked him about that. He was writing about the flora and fauna about him and he had given the height of the place he was in. That location was censored by the APO. ( now APS or army postal service) Yes all letters written by our soldiers to their families from remote places are censored.   

               Our Arakkonam Thatha and sittis would write to us on one card. The word ‘  safe ‘ would always be there on the top. We would smirk. However we loved it when we received letters from Arakkonam. To this day my mama sends each of us a card on our birthdays. 

                 Later in college in Trichy  I got to write letters to my parents . Me in the hostel and they in the yet to be Bangladesh border. Like all college students my letters would be about money. No I was not an over spender. Appa would send an envelope with a letter and forget the dd . Each way the letter would travel for 10 days. Yes a lot of tension. When the dd did arrive the bank would return it as advise not received. 

                  Then after marriage , here I was in Chennai waiting for my transfer to Mumbai. Like a great heroine I would write letters to my husband only to realise that here I was stuck with another censor. 😁 His grand mother. Yes she could read English. When I got transferred to Mumbai and my mother started writing to me I found the old lady would read my letters before me. Yes so much for the joint family system and privacy. 😁

                My children never had to write letters. When my daughter was doing her MBA in Coimbatore she already  had a cellphone. From then of course we have come a long way with our correspondence and the way we text . 

     

     Reference cover only from net.