I
had my early education in Shrine Vailankanni School in T. Nagar, Chennai, one
of the prestigious CBSE Schools during those days. While at school, we are asked to write a lot,
apart from our load of Homework. Our
Teacher advised us to write atleast one page a day during Holidays to improve
our handwriting and to get into the habit of Writing.
Writing
became an integral part of my upbringing.
The teacher was right, even after passing out of the University, the
habit of writing continued. It entered
my work space. It controlled my personal
life and It became my character now.
At
the age of 21, I got an opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia in 1989, as a
Programmer of a Foam Manufacturing Unit.
Since I was living in a Industrial City, Access to Telephones was
difficult and the rates were expensive as well.
Letter writing was the only viable mode of communication. It used to take around 2 to 3 weeks for the
letters to reach either way. So, the
waiting game began. Every day, I used to
wait for that magical call from the Administrator asking me to come and collect
my letter.
The
latest letter would be something that was written 2-3 weeks ago. But I was still happy to receive it. I used to read most of the letters several
times. I have cried, felt happy and even
got motivated by reading some letters as the hand-written letters carried
emotions. I could visualize the sender talking to me with those written
words. I could see the care and love of
my dear ones in those words.
Whenever
some close colleague was to travel to Chennai, I became very busy,
writing. This gives me opportunity to
write more and to many people and give him the letters to post from India. I remember on one such occasion, I have
written for 6 hours, non-stop, just to meet the deadline.
Till
date, I write. I jot down things to do,
working notes, calculations, ideas, meeting points, etc daily. With so much of writing, I can vouch that
writing makes me remember things easily.
It helps me in thinking, both vertically and horizontally. It has allowed me to gain respect for being
disciplined at work. It has completed my
professional outfit. I still write many
hand-written notes and then scan them to store it digitally. I don’t retype them in a Word Document
because I can relate to things and situations easily when I go through my
hand-written notes. That is the power of
writing.
Now,
to see the lack of Writing by the present generation of people, both at work
and otherwise is simply disappointing and sad.
Most of them have just stopped writing no sooner they finished all their
career examinations. These days, they
prefer to type in a computer rather than writing.
I
had an interesting conversation with one of the new generation staff few years
back. He justified typing in word
document because he can revise and correct immediately and submit a properly
worded letter or document. For me, this
clearly indicates that they go through the process of thinking and Jotting as
two separate activity. I replied to him
stating that our thoughts and hands are in synch and we are used to thinking
and writing at the same time. Hence, our
response and drafting are genuine.
Writing
is an important part of life. The
Handwriting can reveal so much and carry so much of emotions and even
character. I always connect to the words
and the emotions it carried.
Hand-written letters or documents makes you feel that the person is in
front of you. Typed ones does not bring
that feeling or emotion.
What
are you waiting for, get back into the habit of writing.
(The above article was written for publication in Dec. 2018 issue of PRINCE'S VOICE - my Community eMagazine.)
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