I was rummaging through the old drawer in search of a lost novel, when I hit upon a neat stack of letters at the bottom. There were multi coloured envelopes, affixed with quaint little stamps of USA. It has almost been a decade now. I fell into a retrospective mood…
The letters were from my ex pen pal – Erin Noble hailing from Illinois, US.I was in high school, when I received the first letter of its kind. I was truly on cloud nine. In those days when getting a personal letter itself was a matter of much pride, receiving one from an alien friend from another part of the world, called for an extreme case of vanity.
This pen-pal ship was initiated through an exchange program by 'Young World'. The acquaintance soon blossomed into a wonderful friendship through a series of letters. Each letter was eagerly awaited; read & re read a zillion times; showcased around to poor buddies(poor = no pen pals) & finally a lengthy reply drafted.
Like many contemporaries, Erin Noble’s India represented a land of tigers & snake charmers. Probably, Americans watched too much of Discovery Channel. It must have been real hard on Erin’s part, to believe, that I didn’t live in a tree house , surrounded by dense rain forest, crawling with snakes & tigers
To make matters worst, I was unofficially declared as their mentor/guide for summer project, which involved a study of tigers. I didn’t have the heart to tell that, the only tigers I have seen are the ones in zoos & the only fact I know is they are India’s national animal. So the next 2 days, I sweated it out in the library, trying my hands on translation work of a Malayalam book “ tigers of India”.
We exchanged cards on all occasions. Once I received a pink envelope, scribbled with “don’t open before 14th ”. For an uninitiated gal to whom Valentines Day existed only in the pages of the novels she read, it was a pleasant surprise. Thus Erin Noble became my first ever Valentine at the tender age of 13.
Then, there were 2 other pals, rather e-pals: Heron El Khwaja from Egypt & Jung Hwa from Korea.
Heron El Khwaja is an engineer from Cairo, Egypt.. After exchanging a few mails , it suddenly dawned on me that El Khwaja rhymed with Al Quaida & timely ended what I believed was a disastrous friendship. Another result of my “ chronic suspicion syndrome”:)
Jung Hwa is a fiery young gal from Korea, pursuing her studies in medicine. Being a Korean, English language was never one of her finer points. But her communication skills were excellent to an extend, where I could imagine the beauty of her vivid descriptions. I still remember her descriptions of her winter music camp, where they huddled around a campfire in the picturesque woods singing, when gentle snowflakes danced all around them. She is an excellent example of how language can never be a barrier to effective communication
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12 comments:
as a kid I had penpals too... wonder where they are these days..
That innocent valentine’s day card really is interesting…..especially if we get it during school days and from the other part of world….
droppin in after a reely long time.. reely cause i've been busy making movies , that is apart from other crazy things.. like changing jobs n stuff..
i've had a few friends myself.. like this girl i was tryin to hit on on the plane at the tender age of 10 or something.. and who said she had a grandfather from poonjab.. heh heh.. but sad none of them lasted beyond a few years..
PS: i read your reply to my last comment only now..
(*wink wink*)
@ thanu: i too used 2 think, where they r now & it'll be nice 2 resume those old friendship..it'z soo nice to read thru' a loong handwritten mail, in these days of instant messaging
@ ajish: i'z quite excited to get vday card:), but my mom was not!!!heheee..a comment frm middle east'z alwayz welcome:)
@toothlesswonder: making movies!! u seems to have ur hands full with quite a lot of activities...keep going.. poonjab was funny:)
but my hands are empty.. hah hah hah..
i've put up a trailer to the movie at my blog.. http://toothlesswonder.blogspot.com
looks like your office proxy doesnt support streaming video.
you're on a bsnl line, so it shouldnt normally have happened, but i dont see another reason.
i'm confused.. :|
That was a nice post. Really remember those days of 'Young World'. I always wanted to have a pen-pal abroad, but Achan always chanted that pen-pals should be in India. Little did I know that his loan-drunk salaries will be stretched by mails to 'onsite'. :)
But its really nice to get to know with the people of other cultures, I thankfully got the chance to have some nice friends in US.
hmmmm.... for a moment... i too got lost in my teen years....
how r u honey???
@popabhi: so u got " onsite" opportunities, very early in life itself :)))) it'zz so wonderful to know, how people of our age lives in other parts of the world... hope u settled down after u jumped out of ur 'comfort zone'
@preety: nice to see ya here... anyway, did i tell ya , i found out ur blog looong back, though u tried hard not to...heheheee... that'z via celestefriendz...:)))
Hey i also had penfriends...
even one was my crush..(now also she doesnt knw tat..;))
But all of them i met in some camp or another..
and all inside kerala..;(
but the feeling of getting a letter from a person whom u have never seen or have remotest chance of seeing again(if seen once as in my case..)is so beautiful.
and u have caught that feeling remarkably well..kudos..
@neermathalam: it's great to share ur feelings with somebody whom u will never meet in your lifetime..you need to have no inhibitions or worry about being judged...
thats stupid i do not believe in pen pals
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