Art of writing

A child gets fascinated with little things. They have fascination towards moving things, noisy, colourful and so on. The first few months when they are in bed they are attracted towards colours, movements and sound. Once they start sitting, they want to touch and feel. Once they start moving they want to grab, and their mind and hand coordination activities starts. That is really fun. They grab a pen, pencil or chalk and start scribbling on floors. They get quickly attracted towards this art.

From Childhood days, I was attracted towards pencils and chalks. There were days I used to sleep with chalks next to me. I remember having scribbled few drawings on the floor with a piece of chalk I had next to my pillow. WOW! Those wonderful days! Also, it is during childhood we get attracted towards few teachers. I cannot forget my primary school teachers Mr.James and Miss Shyamala (then) who impressed me with their beautiful handwriting. I developed a great interest in writing neatly from them. They repeatedly used to say, that to have a good handwriting you should use pencil a lot and switch over to fountain pens only in senior schools. My headmaster also was strict about it. Even last week when one of my colleague was impressed by my handwriting I just wanted to thank my primary school teachers Mr.James and Miss Shyamala. Probably they must have retired by now. I owe a lot to them. Because of good handwriting, I wanted to write a lot. Even today, I would love to write on a piece of paper what I think before putting it into action. Then as we grew into our teens, we got a sudden interest with our cousins who were living far away and then started writing letters. I still possess few letters written by my cousins during childhood days.

Writing is a great art. Let it be in any form. Just last evening while lying down on my ease chair and enjoying a cool breeze and warm sunshine at the back of my new house, memories rolled over. One of my friends had sent me a forward which was about the old and younger generation. The younger generation boasts about the technology from man landing on moon till the nano technology and blames the old of talking about those days. The old man appreciates for all that are new and asks the youngster what they have left for the future? It was a wonderful piece of forward sent by my friend Gideon from US. True! I pity at this generation. They are missing a plenty of things but from their angle certain things seems to be fine.

Last week I saw couple of youngsters walking with their latest electronic diary/phone/palm top computer or whatever it is and scribbling something with a plastic stick. I could only take a deep breath. Are we going to lose this art of writing? I still hold lots of small pieces of papers scribbled with particulars inside my wallet. Once in a while after reading them I destroy them. I started using digital diary in early 90’s and after losing valid data thrice, threw it away and never rely on them. I still have diaries (not digital though) and write with my hand. I doubt my kids. They are already into the electronic stuff. Anytime it gives a great pleasure, when you receive a handwritten letter or greetings.

But honestly how many of us have the habit of writing nowadays?

Is this art going to die?

Is the skill going to be developed only to excel in their school or University level?

Even at certain levels there are other kind of optional questions which require just a tick. Are they not going to miss the art of writing? Are they not going to miss the joy of seeing grandma or grandpa’s lovely handwriting on a piece of paper? Will writing become a talk of the past? My last hand written letter was few years before. I read somewhere that within another 50 years, those who could write will be rare and they will be looked at amazingly. Will someone discover it after 50 years and start a revolution? We could argue that we save papers and help deforestation and all the green stuff.

I remember one of my relative in the hospital bed who was constantly looking at one of the greeting card and a letter written by his brother from far away land, and the joy it brought him. I am sure that millions across the world will agree to this. Again, this is one of those which we may lose as the years roll by.

(It is a shame that I could only type this on a computer, even for initial draft. Where are we heading?)