Pen-pals.

When i was growing up, people were still the same. They sneezed, laughed, winked, made love and war just the same. But but but in those days, there was no Internet (how did we ever survive?) And there were no cellular phones either! Those were the days, my friend! Even so, the need to communicate must have been the same ever since; after all, what do the cave-paintings of centuries ago, indicate?  And people wanted to reach out to other people all across the world even then. Letters were written on sheets of paper or on those strange blue Aerogrammes and so on. It was a veritable ritual ~ the writing, the stamping, the posting and ahhh, the receiving of a letter.                                                                                                             Massive columns in newspapers and magazines were devoted to addresses of unknown people all across the globe for the express purpose of being able to exchange little notes and foolish gifts once we got to know them a bit. A lot of time and energy and even money were spent in sifting out what seemed to be the right ``friend`` (depending upon his choice of music and films and hobbies and star signs and such rubbish!) Excited little notes of individual cultures were tossed across the seven seas like a ping pong ball. A few exchanges, photographs, then gifts and lo! at times the pen pal himself might make the Herculean effort and plan a holiday in your land! Hmm. Those were the days of the puny pen-pal. i never ever could indulge myself in that absurd luxury. And now, it is this omnipotent blog which i have resorted to, on the advise of my friend and with the sole support of Miss I in setting it up. Apparently, people can, if it interests them to make the effort, read all that i have written here and even choose to reply. i thought this was altogether spooky but am giving it a shot. Who knows, some day, i might just find a letter in my letter-box. And that will surely be my day of triumph, since i am neither Amir Khan nor Amitabh Bachchan.