A tale of two letters

I’m no newcomer to the pleasures of letter writing. Writing and receiving have both been equally exciting activities and my Pandora’s Box is filled with reams of letters, cards, and souvenirs, received from family, cousins and friends. (I’m not the kinds who throws away these little treasures of love, I religiously collect every shred of paper and, will probably carry these treasures to the grave!)

When e-mails replaced the snail mails, I did make the jump, and kind of missed the magic of holding a letter in my hand physically, and taking them out on a rainy day when there’s nothing else to do, smell the paper and bring alive the memories of the time gone by! So when the Godmother aka Shailaja, rolled out the snail mail challenge, I was beyond excited!!

When I received the mail informing me about the recipient, I nearly jumped in excitement when I saw Sreeja’s name. I have been communicating with Sreeja since a couple of years already through e-mails and I wondered if the Godmother had just read my mind! Cheers to that, Godmother, and thank you!!

Writing to Sreeja was like a continuation from where we last left off. We have already spoken to each other during her visit to India, chatted on whatsapp, communicated on mail, and it didn’t feel like I was writing to a stranger at all! We knew about each other's families, and lot of other nitty-gritties too, so it did make the task more comfortable. After filling sheets and sheets of paper (which by the way should not be a surprise!) I sent her the mail waiting to see her reaction after she received the letter. I was so tempted to send her an e-mail and tell her what was on the way, but how could I spoil her surprise? Was it worth it? You bet! The minute she received it, she sent me a huge beating heart on Whatsapp! Writing to her was so exciting, and my thoughts were so scattered, that bringing them together was a huge challenge. added to that, my handwriting was horrible, having lost the habit of writing so much using a pen! I hope she was able to read through it! 

Well, before Sreeja could receive my letter, I received mine from Shantala!! The minute I saw the letter in my mailbox, I was jumping about like a school kid. That is what these surprises do to you, don't they? Reading the letter was such a pleasure. She, like me, had ensured to fill in as many sheets too and that made me smile! I must have read and re-read that letter a dozen times! Her handwriting was so neat and uniform that I was kind of ashamed of my "kombdi-dhawla-saarkha" (like a hen has run across the paper with ink on its feet!!) handwriting. Knowing about her, what she does, and what her family is like, brought us closer too. I had known her since our A-Z challenge days through our blogs only, and to know someone from so close was such a warm feeling.

I got a surprise too, she had enclosed a photo of my favorite god, Krishna, along with the letter and it touched my heart to know, that it was a gift to her from her aunt. To part with something as precious was indeed a loving gesture!

The Godmother, indeed played godmother, bringing us so much happiness with a simple task. Muaah to that, Shailaja!