The only time I write nowadays

The other day I had to write a few sentences. I mean actually write with pen and paper; not type on a computer.

I was shocked to realise; one, how difficult it has become to write; and two, the handwriting -- which, long back when I was in school and college, was reasonably good -- had become so horrible that the words, when written fast, are illegible, looking more like a mass of shapeless, undulating lines.

I wound my memory clock back to find out when was the last time I wrote at least half a page of something. Those were the days before email and personal computers.

It was in 1999, I got my first email ID, a Hotmail address. Till then, I used to write letters to my friends. Once email came, letter writing completely stopped; except to one very good friend.

I began working on a computer word processor for the first time in my office in 1989. But I got my first computer at home only 10 years later.

With computers at home and office, writing gradually came to a grinding halt.

The only time I write now is a letter of three to four pages to Henry, a friend who lives in England. He is also the only person who writes a letter to me. He is in his early 70s, and not at all computer savvy. He doesn't even have one. Nor does he have an email ID.

The reply to his last letter is long due. I have consciously decided not to type out the letter. Because it will look formal, lacking personal touch.

It is not easy to write. But the effort is worth it. I must write slowly, lest what I write become illegible.

Let me stop typing out this blog post and publish it. Then, I will take an A4 paper and pen, and start writing my letter to Henry.