Where Are All Those Epistles??

Letter-writing, even as a casual exercise has long been forgotten and as an art form has faded from memories eons ago.  But it was not always like this. Times were, when even the most self-serving of that unfathomable species called Poet, would not have dreamt of entering for league-table honours without one qualification.  That of having written at least a few epistles!  For all the preening-like-peacocks they indulged in, poets took to epistles as avidly as modern-day-politicians to corruption. Be it besotted love, visceral hatred, snooty indifference or rib-tickling hilarity, all emotions and subject matters were couched in epistles by poets from time to time, just to prove that they have been there and done that.  This was de rigueur even if some of the stuff was deeply personal and need not have been for public consumption.  Just to demonstrate that they could excel in that ubiquitous medium called `epistle'.

Take, for example, `Epistle to Dr.Arbuthnot' by Alexander Pope.  That king of satire was looking to ambush all his opponents who were hyper-critical of his satirical ways.  He could have elected to hire a podium, get a megaphone and berate heartily all those indulging in hostilities.  But shrewd as he was, he was not going to let a great opportunity pass.  He chose to write this epistle to his dear friend Dr.Arbuthnot, who was so seriously ill and was so delicately poised on the precipice that even a minor gasp could have nudged him on his way, leave alone an emotionally charged epistle!  Still, an epistle it was, for Pope.  Why?  This author realises that his readers are also getting impatient as to why this epistle bit is being belaboured so much, so here we go.  Because, 'epistle' as a literary form had a special aura of romance, elegance and grace, depending on the writer, even when the contents were bordering on the vitriolic or foul-mouthed.  John Keats could have walked across to his brother's home, patted him on his back and poured out his heart for ten minutes; instead, he chose to write `Epistle to my brother George' and God knows that it was a more arduous task!! Robert Burns and George Byron  were also guilty of repeatedly using this art form, primarily because of its compelling stylistic charm.  You will be surprised to hear that P.G.Wodehouse wrote epistles to his friends, co-authors like Agatha Christie. Whether or not these were all meant for the public domain, eventually they did show up and generations of readers were the beneficiaries.  Even Jack the Ripper paused between murders to write letters (the so-called Dear-Boss letters) to the head of a news agency, very appropriately in red-ink, graphically describing his last kill and cruelly contemplating the next target.  To be precise, the authorship of such letters was never clearly established and one does not know who the author was. Nasty they were, not nearly epistles, but still, letters.

Till around three decades back, letter was still mass-medium, for lack of other channels of communication. Some of my contemporaries who could not put pen to paper without suffering birth pangs (somebody had once famously said that such boys would more easily deliver children than a decently-written letter -- don't ask me who) regardless of the language involved, were forced to write letters to express their puppy-love as students.  This author had the hilarious experience of translating verbatim, that immortal song from the blockbuster Hindi movie, Sangam - `Yeh mera prem pathra padhkar' - that classic love letter in epistle form, for the benefit of a friend in need.  Obviously the latter had no capacity for a good sentence, nor respect for copyright.  He was the type whose idea of a letter always began with `As I was suffering from', but fancied his chances with a blatantly plagiarised flowery letter to a girl in his neighbourhood, with whom he thought he was desperately in love - never mind what the girl thought.  But, I am digressing.  That iconic song as well as the Thamizh song from the movie `Kuzhandaiyum Dheivamum' - `Anbulla Maan Vizhiye' - represent the best of love-letter-songs that have enthralled posterity.  Apart from love-lettering, leave-lettering and job-seeking-lettering, people had gradually been conveniently weaned away from the epistle form over the years.

Upto this point in time, people never complained of snail-mail, simply because there was no other alternative in sight and an`Express Delivery' sticker on a letter, with a hefty incremental charge paid to the Post Office comforted senders that the missive would eventually shimmy across fifty miles in one week or so.  And people were delirious because it worked almost always.  Then lightning struck - email happened.  For all the convenience it brought to us, email killed the concept of letter-writing.  I would just make one point to settle any argument in this context - has anyone ever seen anything like `An Anthology of Great E-mail Messages' by any author in the last twenty years??   I have not.  It is not impossible to use the medium of email and still write good letters or even epistles because what has changed is the means of delivery not the form, artistic or otherwise.  Notwithstanding this, there is barely any desire left for epistling today.  Logically all those lovers of epistles should be penning more often because delivery, turn-around-time etc have tremendously improved.  But no, the majority of us have lost touch with the art-form so badly that we do not even remember it existed.  And the bulk of us do not have it in us to make that extra effort which is essential to produce something that wholesome.

But, wait a minute.  This is not to denigrate the present generation about their writing abilities.  I will be prevaricating if I do not acknowledge the fact that there is a lot more interest in writing amongst youngsters today.  Simply because the media and platforms for expressing themselves are much more readily available, easy to access and use.  One just has to look at the plethora of blogs being written on all subjects under and over the sun, with much less inhibition and much more openness than ever before.  So, the beef here is not with youngsters' getting into writing, but specifically pertains to the moribund art form of `epistling'.  Obviously the querulous question will surface from some quarter - `why should we be writing letters, when we can communicate in other ways'?  Just because the movie industry today is technologically way better and very appealing, we have not jettisoned theatre completely, have we?   Just because new songs arrive on the scene, we have not forgotten the old melodies, have we?  Just because pizzas and empenadas are available aplenty today, have we given up on our dal, roti, idli, dosa?  So, why cant we preserve something beautiful and elegant from the past, even as we employ newer and slicker media to facilitate that?

So, where are we heading?  Further degeneration in this context, seemingly irrepressible, has gained serious momentum with all the short messaging platforms (SMS, Whatsapp, Messenger etc) going berserk.  Some very bright nephews and nieces of mine almost  believe that `the' has always been spelt `da' and I am not surprised because they are all engineers writing codes, not sentences!  Language is being brutalized so badly that the mangled version is beyond recognition for the bulk from the older generations. Youngsters from this generation are immersing themselves more deeply in abbreviations and acronyms, not even wanting to write full words, forget sentences.  A typical conversation goes like this:

-- R u k? (Are you okay)
-- CTN (Cant talk now)
-- Y (Why)
-- PAW (Parents are watching), POS (Parent over the shoulder)
-- NTIM (Not that it matters)
-- TTYL (Talk to you later)
-- CUS (See you soon) 

No, I am neither conversant nor comfortable with this language, but used the internet to collate a few gems for edification, ably assisted by my dear wife, who is way ahead of me in this game (I can see many of you who know us both nodding appreciatively and asking why only this game!).  If effective communication today has come to this, what are the chances of revival for epistles?? RIP, Epistle, is all this author can think of. 

I have a bad feeling that I will get a few belligerent emoticons for this and the crowning glory could be a fist with one finger sticking up, definitely not the thumb!!  Mercifully, that emoticon does not seem to be around; must be under construction!