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Dear Milena, I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say, “Come with me, Milena.”
This letter by Franz Kafka often reminds us of the immense possibilities of the stories that never could happen or happened just for a moment.
A moment that was handpicked by our memory and cherished forever.
The days have mostly passed by when our hearts spoke through written letters to our loved ones.
Sometimes, it just wanted to express hidden feelings. Letters often tend to leave a mesmerising fragrance as if it were coming from a handkerchief from the beloved.
Letters evoke the visuals of a yellow envelope with green boxes peeking from a sack carried by a postman, the red, long postboxes standing here and there on the lanes of our cities.
Handwritten or digital, letters have always been there, with a newer mould – a newer tone, trying to find the old melody of our hearts.
Jafrun Nahar Swarna shares a long-lost golden memory from her childhood, “I still remember the letters I used to write in childhood. Well, most of them were complaining about my mother and sister. I always took my father’s shelter for that, so I kept writing letters to him describing what ‘injustice’ they had done to me! But the consequences were not very fruitful for me. Because everyone read those letters together and made fun of me, especially the alleged persons. And then my father would feign scolding them and take my side. How naive and magical those days were— the days never to come back like the letters once mailed and lost.”
Nusrat Nowshin tells us a story from her class 6, where she tried to convince her friend not to leave the school. So she wrote a bunch of reasons why that friend should not go anywhere else.
Nusrat’s convincing power through the letter helped her in the process, and she laughingly shared, “And she actually did not leave the school!” Though time has left its mark on the dynamics of the friendship and both of their journeys, to date, Nusrat thinks of the incident and laughs her heart out with the new friends she makes. That is how the caravan of memories goes on and on, isn't it?
Mansura Hossain does not specifically recall her first letter. Still, as a mother, she takes pride in the letters written by her daughters, “The first time my daughters wrote to me was the first time they learnt to write at all. Every letter is special to me. I believe that you cannot write lies in a letter; somehow, the real feelings march forward.”
"There was a tradition of letter writing in our family. We used to write to our mother. Letters used to fly among the siblings. Not only have I written and received letters from family, but I have also written and received letters from friends from the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism at DU," she adds.
"Letters are something that have always been with me, in every step of my life. Many years ago, my husband proposed to me in a letter, and now my daughters write to me as well. I have a bag full of letters– the memories of life,” she expresses.
Out of all the intense stories related to letters, let us finish with a laugh with Golam Kibria Bhuiyan’s childhood story, “My parents used a trick of making me write letters so that I would finally learn something valuable for my exams. As I was adamant, they came up with something unique. They told me to write a letter to my cousin living in the Middle East to bring me toys. Alas, naive me!”
When you were reading these stories, did you remember something sad, something funny or something to remember forever, lingering in the pen and paper, waiting for you to unfold your own stories? Do you also remember your first letter? What was it about? Who was it written to? Are they still in your life?