The Missing Art Of Traditional Writing
I opened the facebook page of my Medical College group and closely noticed that it expected a viewer to act on an inviting phrase: 'write something'.
Before I responded I happened to play with these words for a while. The phrase seemed to be a literal flaw to me. It should say... 'type' something and not write. A few years ago when writing with a pen was customary for most of the writers (as PCs and laptops were unaffordable for most), people used to say 'write' (meaning using pen and paper) and say 'type' while using a typewriter.
Just today I came across a juicy story from the book 'The Continent Of Circe' by Nirad C. Chaudhuri. Once, his writer friend, Khushwant Singh had lent his new typewriter to this economically poor, talented Bengali friend. All was well until Khushwant mentioned Chaudhuri's name in an interview as one of the writers he loved to read. But this wasn't without a pinch of salt. He said, "Poor man! he cannot even afford a typewriter, so I had to lend him one." Nirad was flabbergasted that his state of abject poverty was made into a delicious dish for the readers. Thus this 'poor Benglee' was stripped of his last possession... his pride and prestige. After reading this story, I realized that 'writing' on a typewriter was not so uncommon then.
But since these gentlemen were 'writing' (rather typing) in English, it was possible. The vernacular writers I think till date prefer to write (literary with a pen and paper). But, if we talk about people in general, in the current times, it is still correct because now the terms have become synonymous. How many of us are really writing letters or even posting a birthday wish card with hand-written scribble of our emotions?
Life has come on a fast forward mode for most, communication explosion has connected people with the click of a mouse; and one can communicate with 'n'-number of desired receivers in a fraction of a second. Naturally, it is now customary to invite relatives and friends through mails (via internet) rather than taking the trouble of completing the tiresome, lengthy, organized way of writing scores of letter to many; and then fixing them properly with gum (very often we see most of these paraphernalia are hardly spotted in the house when needed) before dropping those in a letterbox a mile away, hoping at least half of them would reach their destination in time. All these miseries have become things of past, thanks to modern technology.
This morning, being a Sunday, I had an opportunity to chat leisurely with a 80-year old who is a good listener. I was expressing how the charm of looking at the old letters and manuscripts is gradually getting rarer and rarer over past decade or so. One can find loads of hidden gems in those manuscripts... like the quality of handwriting, the mood and character of the person while writing the matter (whether it is faultless, organized, soothing, or otherwise). In Tagore's manuscripts we commonly see that the writer used to convert the invalid parts of the lines, words or a full column into various figures that had a unique art-form. This added to the charm of his mainline poetical creations and its theme. Had Tagore sat with a computer with an Avro software to create Bengali poems (I got to know about the software from my dear buddy Siddhartha M. whom I fondly address as 'Sidhdha Mukh' and most importantly, he doesn't mind this name being used and... may be abused by me), how on earth would these gems fall from his fingers (and not 'hand'...again, I am trying to be 'clinically honest' as we use the entire hand in writing, and only the fingers while typing). We would, as a result obtain only a part of that genius through the modern 'writing' technique. That would abjectly be a very 'un-Tagorian' product.
The conclusion is, with our all-round development we have unconsciously accepted typing and writing as synonyms. But in this smooth transformation of norms and practices many a charm has been lost which bear the flavour of humanity that includes qualitatively inspirational and thought-provoking dimensions (like a multicoloured rainbow). What we are offering in its place is a bland, blunt, stereotyped, charmless, colourless method of expression.
Things to ponder!!
Not for all, but for the 'lazy bums' as my Mom addresses me, when she finds me just sitting and scribbling 'abol-tabol' and not putting my efforts in more fruitful ways, like helping her in the house or getting some stuff she needs urgently from the grocery... poor me, the old lady will never know the meaning of 'brain-storming'!
