In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives. ~Anatole Broyard

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Please note typing and sending an email is not the same as writing with a black HERO pen, filled with blue ink, on a plain sheet of paper. The other night (now that my DVD player has sniff sniff. *sigh) I was eating dinner or was it supper (Supper is the last meal of the day, right!! but what about those snacks I eat at midnight?) and watching this local serial. A scene where the granddaughter writes a letter to her family and the Grandpa is reading it out aloud, amused me. All the family members are listening intently and so is my mom. I found this hilarious, not sure why, but it did and I pointed this to my mom " Hahaaa... they are still writing letters, can't they just use the phone or the internet " .I shake my head ... I was still in my " Ping you've got mail " mode. My mom has this "far off" look and says " Hmm.. I remember when I was newly married, I used to write home regularly and you know all my friends and neighbours would gather around my brother as he read it aloud. I would always make it a point to include everyone's name in it. " Mom was born and brought up in Mangalore and had to move to Bangalore after marrying my Pop. I wonder what she wrote in those letters. This was in the year 1973. Maybe something in the lines of ... "Bangalore is beautiful and the climate is very cold. We have to wear woolen sweaters to stay warm (Mangalore has a tropical climate).I saw a double decker bus today and my husband takes me regularly to the cinema (Yep it was called cinema in those days. I think she would then write about the latest Kannada film that she saw). The other day we went to Cubbon Park and had our photo taken .Will send it soon.We went to this place called MG road, ate Masala Dosa's and saw an English film. The film was so boring , it had these weird guys fighting with color color tublelights." (Star wars * sigh). Maybe should ask her what she really wrote……