Writing on a POSTCARD - 558

    First Foray in Social Media 

These are days of Instant Transfer of News , Pictures or Videos to known dear ones across the World or even to people with whom you have not even shared a friendly Hello .

The Internet and the Mobile Phone has Changed the way of our daily life . ZOOM , GOOGLE MEET.  EMAIL WHATSAPP, INSTAGRAM , TWITTER are Just a few terms which are very much a part of our daily life now .

Add Amazon , Flipkart and tatacliq and you need not step out of your home for any purchases . They get delivered at your doorstep .

Net Banking , Googlepay , Rupay , Phonepay , etc have made our  life simple . No need to carry cash in your wallet and add  the risk of it getting misplaced  or stolen .

Over The Top ( OTT ) Platforms like Netflix , Amazon Prime , Disney Hotstar have changed the way we watch movies and Sporting Actions anywhere across the Globe .

During our heydays as youngsters the only Social Media that we knew or made use of was the Stationary of the good old INDIAN POSTAL SERVICES . Letters to your parents , friends and oh yes ,   to your Sweethearts if you were lucky enough to have one  were ferried by these ever obliging good  samaritans who braved the Sun , Rain or Freezing cold to get these  precious Letters delivered to the right addresses .

How can one forget the POSTCARD , INLAND LETTER ( Wrongly called as the England letter by many ) and the COVER  . The cheapest of the lot was the POSTCARD . It tested one's ingenuity  by making you write in as  small and in  as close proximity to each other as possible  . The trick of the trade was to write almost a book in the small space available at your disposal.  This had a downside to it as well . Anyone finding it  hard to while away his or her time  could lay his or her hands on a postcard and could read in to the contents and know all the secrets or otherwise of its contents and have a jolly good time while at it . 

The middle one was the INLAND or England Letter , this served everyones needs , both space and privacy was available to you . The flipside was that one often ended up opening the letter at the wrong way  , never sure of where to put the scissors at the pasted portion inspite of the earmarked dotted lines .

Last one , the COVER , though slightly costlier had everything going , space , privacy , a show of  intimacy to your beloved one  by way of a few petals of Rose or a Picture could also be sneaked in .

Be it Agasthiarpatty , Mumbai , London or Toronto all the above seem to  hold true .

The much awaited money order from your father , the much feared Telegrams  which were in almost 95 % of the cases , the  harbingers of  news regarding some one new  entering your family or someone else who has breathed his last , The Trunk Calls to your relatives in Chennai or Mumbai which took almost half a day to get the line through might now sound as if this was in the far off stone age . It might be worth noting here that this was as recent as  the turn of the Century or till the 2000 to be more correct .

After innumerable attempts , getting a PEN FRIEND was a hobby that many might have attempted and many might have  even succeeded . The long and anxious wait to get a reply may be recalled by many . Exchange of hard copies of pictures, notes were by Post only. I Remember it took almost a month to get a reply from my PEN FRIEND from  Belgium .

SOCIAL MEDIA NOW IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IT WAS DURING OUR TIME .