Well-written Letters

Recently I read a book called English August. I loved reading that book, after reading it, I browsed through it again to re-read the underlined paragraphs and remarkable pages. It was at this time, that I noticed how awesome the letters that characters of the book had written to each other were. Indeed I like well written letters and emails, and the ones I found in this book were just the perfect.

Most of these letters are just conversations between the protagonist, and his father, they clearly have the shades of being written by men standing at two different points of the time scale. There are couple of letters which are from Agastya’s friends also. The first letter in book appears as a reply from Agastya’s father, it starts with an apology for being late, but as he wrote, “He wanted time to compose his reply.”   He further writes that he had received a letter from Agastya on 4^th Afternoon. “I read it immediately and once again in the night. I am unhappy at your unhappiness. You have not mentioned it specifically but it is palpable in every line of your letter.”  This letter from his father ends, gently nudging Agastya to write regularly and assuring that he too, will try to be regular. A line in the book says Agastya read the letter, and once again with a half smile on his face as he pictured his father writing it.

In the letter that followed from Agastya he kept it brief, terse and clear. He accepted the impression his father had got about his being unhappy and requested him to call a family relative and ask him to offer another job. He also mentioned that during a holiday break, he will be going to Delhi instead of Calcutta, without citing any reason.

Another interesting letter, a little different than that of, Agastya’s and his father’s, is from a friend of Agastya called Dhrubo.  Here is a first line of the letter followed by its description in book, “Renu that Punjaban I was fucking, has gone to America. (So began the letter, without a date or a hello. But that was Dhrubo’s style, abrupt and ashamed of emotions)”  

The next letter is again from Agastya’s father, as he responds to Agastya’s request of putting him in touch with a family relative that can help him find another job. He expressed his surprise at Agastya’s decision, however has done as directed. One of the most powerful lines of this letter goes like this “Ogu (Agastya’s nickname), don’t choose the soft option just because it is the soft option, one cannot fulfil oneself by doing so. Yet it is also true that it is your life and decisions have to be yours.”

The last letter that book contains is again from Agastya’s friend, named Neera. She writes in opening lines that she had written to inform him that she lost her virginity. And asked how he liked her formal announcement.  Strongest lines from this letter are “My other feelings are very confused but I am unequivocally, relieved. I have taken a plunge, so to speak.”

All these letters are written in different context environ and mental makeup of these characters writing them, however one thing that cuts across all of them is an honesty of expression. I believe it is this honesty that makes an expression transcend from the sender to the receiver of the letter.

When was the last time you took time to compose a letter? What different tones your letters have had, request, plain bickering, care, concern, love, confession? When was the last time, you could read something more in a letter than plain content it carried?  Writing a letter is like putting a part of your mind and heart on paper and show it to your reader, it’s not just about an ink on white paper, it’s a lot more when done well.

** Italicized and emboldened lines are taken from a book "English August" by Upamanyu Chaterjee